ATTACK SUSPECT WAS FAILED ASYLUM-SEEKER
STOCKHOLM The Stockholm truck attack suspect was a rejected asylum-seeker from Uzbekistan who eluded authorities’ attempts to deport him by giving police a wrong address, Swedish police said Sunday while announcing the arrest of a second suspect.
Jan Evensson of the Stockholm police said the 39-year-old suspect’s request for a residence permit was rejected in June 2016, but police could not find him to send him back to his native country because he was not at the address he had given. Swedish police started formally seeking him on Feb. 24.
“We know he has been sympathetic to extremist organizations,” said Jonas Hysing of Sweden’s national police. He declined to name the suspect, who was arrested within hours of Friday’s attack on shoppers in Stockholm.
A second person has been arrested in connection with the attack and is suspected of terrorist offences, including murder, spokeswoman Karin Rosander told The Associated Press. Four others were being held by police.
The four victims killed in Friday’s attack, in which a hijacked beer truck was driven into a department store, were a British man, a Belgian woman and two Swedes. Their identities were not released by Swedish officials.
The British government named the Briton as Chris Bevington, an executive at Swedish music-streaming service Spotify.