Suspect was rejected for asylum
The Uzbek man arrested in last week’s terrorism rampage in central Stockholm was an asylum seeker whose application was rejected and who in December was given four weeks to leave the country, Swedish police said Sunday.
The suspect, 39, had shown “sympathy for extremist organizations,” police said. The man applied for permanent residency in 2014, and the Swedish Migration Agency denied his application in June 2016, officials said.
Police tried to find him in February of this year to execute the exit order, but he had gone underground, becoming a wanted man, Jonas Hysing, the national strategic commander, said at a news conference Sunday in the Stockholm police headquarters.
“We know that he has shown sympathy for extremist organizations like IS,” Hysing said, referring to the Islamic State terrorist group.
On Friday, the man was arrested on suspicion of driving a stolen beer truck that was used to mow down a crowd of people, killing four and injuring 15 others.
“It makes me frustrated,” Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Swedish news agency TT on Sunday.
A second person was arrested on the same potential charge Sunday, and four others were being held by police. None of them have been identified.
On Sunday, police released more information about the victims after informing their next of kin. The dead included two Swedish citizens, one Briton and one Belgian, said Jan Evensson, the strategic commander of the Stockholm police.
The father of the British victim told the Swedish newspaper Expressen that his son, Chris Bevington, 41, a senior manager at the streaming music service Spotify, died in the attack.
The founder of Spotify, Daniel Ek, who is Swedish, said in a statement on his Facebook page that Chris Bevington had worked at Spotify for five years.
Police have not provided more information about the victims.
The assault, in a city known for its tolerance and openness, came after the Swedish Security Service, or SAPO, warned in March in its annual security report that a terrorist acting alone was likely to attack somewhere in the country within a year.
As many as 300 people have gone from Sweden to Syria or Iraq to fight with the Islamic State, according to SAPO, and about half that number have returned. There has been no indication that the man in custody had been fighting alongside extremists, said Anders Ygeman, the nation’s interior minister.
But Stockholm police said the man had been able to elude authorities’ attempts to deport him by giving them an incorrect address.