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Uzbek defendant says attack meant to stop Sweden from fighting IS
 [RFE/RL] A rejected Uzbek asylum seeker who has admitted to a truck attack that killed five people in Stockholm told a court that his aim was to force Sweden to end its fight against the Islamic State. At a hearing at his trial on February 20, defendant Rakhmat Akilov said, "I wanted Sweden to stop sending soldiers to war zones where the Islamic State is being attacked."Akilov is accused of terrorism for stealing a delivery truck on April 7, 2017, and plowing into pedestrians on a busy shopping street. The attack killed three Swedes, including an 11-year-old girl, as well as a British man and a Belgian woman. Ten other people were wounded. Akilov, who spoke in Russian through an interpreter, said he also wanted Sweden "to stop sending gigantic sums of money to combat the caliphate." He claimed he was "not inspired" by any specific attack, "as there were very many," but was aware of similar attacks in Berlin, London, and Nice. Akilov also saw statements and calls for attacks made on Internet sites used by IS, he told the court. Akilov, whose Swedish asylum application was turned down in 2016, had sworn allegiance to IS on the eve of his assault. Sweden has some 70 military personnel based mainly in northern Iraq to provide training as part of the coalition against IS. The prosecution has requested a life sentence for Akilov, who police say confessed to the attack and told them he wanted to run down infidels. Defense lawyer Johan Eriksson told the Stockholm district court hearing, "Akilov took the truck...and drove it the way the prosecutor described. He killed five people and physically injured 10." Eriksson said in January that his client had not expected to survive the attack. An investigation found that Akilov was in direct contact with alleged IS militants from Tajikistan before, during, and after the Stockholm attack. Akilov, a construction worker and an ethnic Tajik from Uzbekistan, was arrested a few hours after the Stockholm attack, and police said he confessed the next day. During the court proceedings on February 13, they played a video where Akilov swore allegiance to IS and presented several conversations on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and Zello that were found on his phone. Of the messages, prosecutor Hans Ihrman said 16 were "interesting," especially those on a Zello chat forum where Akilov spoke to contacts using the pseudonyms Muovia Regari, Abu Aisha, Muhammad, and Abu Fotima, among others. According to the prosecutor, Akilov wrote to one of his contacts on January 19, 2017, "I'm working and saving money and God willing I will carry out the martyr operation." He also wrote a list of potential targets to one contact, including a synagogue, a ferry transporting "sinners," and a nightclub. "There are plenty of infidels here," he wrote. Posted by: ryuge 2018-02-22 |
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