Jihadi who killed Briton in truck rampage in Stockholm is jailed
A TERRORIST who drove a stolen truck into a crowd in Stockholm, killing five – including a British businessman – has been given a life sentence.
Rakmat Akilov, 40, said he wanted to punish Sweden for joining a coalition against the Islamic State group.
Father-of-two Chris Bevington, 41, an executive with music streaming service Spotify, died alongside a Belgian woman and three Swedes in the attack on April 7 last year. After ploughing the truck into a crowd on a busy shopping street and crashing into a department store, Akilov also planned to blow himself up.
But he failed and caused a smaller explosion inside the truck before fleeing via the subway. He was arrested hours later.
Judge Ragnar Palmkvist said Akilov, who confessed to the attack, was the only suspect.
The court also sentenced him to be expelled from Sweden after he serves his sentence, and banned him from returning. He was found guilty of five counts of terror-related murder, 119 counts of attempted murder and 24 of endangering the lives of others. Akilov was born in Uzbekistan and worked there as a construction worker.
He came to Sweden in 2014 and applied for asylum, claiming he had been persecuted.
His application was rejected and he was ordered to leave Sweden in December 2016.
Instead, he went underground, eluding authorities’ attempts to track him down.