Stockholm attacker admits to terror crime

STOCKHOLM:Suspected Stockholm truck attacker Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek and jihadist sympathiser, admitted on Tuesday to committing a “terror crime” by mowing down pedestrians on a busy street, killing four people and injuring 15 .

“Akilov confesses to a terrorist crime and accepts his custody detention,” his lawyer Johan Eriksson told a custody hearing in a Stockholm district court.

Akilov, who was arrested just hours after Friday’s attack, appeared in the courthouse’s special heavily-guarded, highsecurity courtroom. Handcuffed and wearing a thick green hoodie over his head, he kept his head bowed down.

Akilov, a Russian speaker, had an interpreter at his side to help him follow the proceedings. He did not address the court directly.

Akilov, who is facing life behind bars, had requested that his state-appointed lawyer Johan Eriksson be replaced by a Sunni Muslim, saying “only a lawyer of this faith could assert his interests in the best way”. The court refused the request.

Akilov, a construction worker who had been refused permanent residency in Sweden in June 2016, had gone underground last year after receiving a deportation order, police said.

Islamic State has not claimed responsibility for the Stockholm attack, but Swedish media reports on Monday said Akilov had told investigators that he had received an “order” from IS to carry out the attack against “infidels”. AFP