Sweden pursues terrorists, fears things go out of control

On Thursday, December 27, 2018, the Swedish authorities charged three people with planning to commit terrorist crimes. Prosecutors accused the defendants and three others of financing the terrorist organization.

The prosecutor's office in Stockholm said in a statement quoted by Reuters: "Three suspects obtained and stockpiled large amounts of chemicals and other equipment to kill or harm people. If the terrorist act had been carried out, it would have greatly harmed Sweden.”

According to the prosecution, the six defendants are not from Sweden, but from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, both former Soviet republics and predominantly Muslim.

Five people are still being held by the Swedish authorities, while the sixth has been released pending trial.

Two weeks ago, Swedish intelligence said in a press statement that it had arrested a person in western Sweden suspected of preparing for terrorist attacks in the country, and several people had been called in for questioning after intensive efforts in several western Swedish cities to combat terrorism.

Swedish radio quoted Gabriele Finststedt, a Swedish intelligence official, as saying that intensive investigations were under way to hear statements.

In June, a Swedish court sentenced a Uzbek citizen named Rahmat Akilov, a sympathizer to the extremist Daesh organization, who carried out the Stockholm terrorist attack on April 7, 2017, by killing a passerby on the market of Drottningengan (Queen Street) and injuring 15 others.

The intelligence service estimates that the number of Swedish people who have traveled to fight in the ranks of extremist organizations in Syria and Iraq has reached 300, and that 100 Swedish citizens who joined the ranks of the terrorist organization are still present in the Middle East and that men still insist on fighting to the end or moving to other war zones to fight.

Officials at the Central Security Unit, Hans Ermann, said in an interview with Swedish radio that Sweden must change its anti-terrorism laws to become at the same level as other EU countries.

"Sweden, with its current laws, can not always cooperate and assist other EU countries in combating terrorist crimes," according to Erman.

Swedish laws are less stringent than those in Western and Northern Europe. In Britain, for example, membership in terrorist organizations is prohibited. In Belgium, any participation in the activities of terrorist organizations is a punishable offense.

Sweden suffers from a major lack of preventive action against violent extremism, as well as the difficulty of anti-crime authorities in exchanging information to prevent violent extremism, according to a government study issued last year.