Stockholm attacker was rejected asylum-seeker
Deportation system failed, PM says; second arrest made
@jmbacon USA TODAY
The Uzbekistan man accused in last week’s terror attack in Sweden that killed four people had been rejected for asylum and dodged deportation by using a phony address, Swedish authorities said Sunday.
The 39-year-old man is accused of stealing a beer truck and crashing it into a crowd of shoppers at the Ahlens department store in Stockholm on Friday. Two Swedes, a British man and a Belgian woman were killed and more than a dozen people were wounded, several seriously.
A second arrest in the case was made Sunday, and several other people were detained for questioning, police said.
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said it was “frustrating” that police were unable to deport the man after he was denied asylum in June. The man was notified in December that he had four weeks to leave the country. The case was referred to police in February, but the man was not at the address he had provided and could not be found, Löfven said.
The prime minister said it was crucial that the system be improved, and that Swedes become confident the system works.
About 12,000 people are similarly sought across Sweden, and police often have problems locating them, Par Lowenberg, a National Border Police spokesman, told the Swedish TT news agency. Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said it was too early to say whether government officials had made errors in the case.
Also Sunday, Ahlens apologized on Facebook for sending an email to customers announcing the store would reopen Sunday with reduced prices for damaged goods.
“We were pressed and acted too fast in a situation that is awful and surreal for us all,” the store said on Facebook.
“Our driving force to open was born out of the idea of standing up for transparency and not let evil forces get to rule our lives,” the post read.
The store reopening will be delayed a day and will not feature damaged goods, Ahlens said.
The tragedy prompted calls for tighter immigration policies in the country, although major changes would be complicated if they ran afoul of European Union rules.
Sweden’s liberal immigration policies resulted in the nation of 10 million people accepting more than 150,000 refugees in 2015.
In October the city of Lund made global news with a controversial program to reintegrate returned jihadis by providing them housing, education and financial support.
“It is much cheaper to reintegrate a person into society than to abandon them,” Anna Sjöstrand, the municipal coordinator against violent extremism, told national Swedish radio.
“It is much cheaper to reintegrate a person into society than to abandon them.”