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Terror suspect's phone password 'was jihad'

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Terror suspect's phone password 'was jihad'
The suspect and his legal representative in court. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

UPDATED: The trial of a 20-year-old former teaching student from northern Stockholm started on Friday. He is accused of planning to blow himself up in Sweden.

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The man, who was arrested earlier this year, faces trial at Attunda District Court on suspicion of preparing to commit an act of terror. He is accused of trying to build a suicide bomb similar to the ones used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attacks.

He was arrested after police found six bottles of aceton, duct tape, a mobile phone and jars with bullets during a search of his home earlier this year. A receipt for Christmas tree lights and surveillance footage showing him buying a pressure cooker from Ikea are also part of the case.

They brought him in for questioning twice, but let him go the first time, after not finding any substantial evidence during another, previous, search of his house and examination of his mobile phone.

"The only notable thing about the mobile phone was that the password was jihad," prosecutor Ewamari Häggkvist told the court on Friday.

In interrogations, the man, who grew up in well-off suburb Danderyd north of Stockholm, has denied the claims, but has refused to explain why he bought the ingredients, which can be used to build bombs.

"The ingredients are considered enough to build a bomb. Depending on where it penetrates the injuries could result in amputations or deaths," said the prosecutor, reading a report by the Swedish Defence Research Agency in court.

According to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper his relatives raised the alarm several months before he was arrested by security police in February. In June last year one of his family members called the police, saying he was concerned about the 20-year-old, who had then disappeared.

The suspect was shortly thereafter stopped in Turkey on two occasions. The first time he was made to return to Greece, the second time he was flown back to Sweden from Istanbul. According to the prosecutor his intention had been to travel onwards to Syria to join Isis.

Several of his relatives have in interrogations stated that the 20-year-old had been experiencing symptoms of depression, had isolated himself from others and had expressed radical opinions sympathizing with Isis.

DN recounts how his family contacted psychological experts, social workers, an imam and police, but the suspect refused to accept help, and the accusations at the time were not enough to arrest him.

Security police only seized him after his mother discovered the suspected bomb ingredients.

“Dad, I don't want to live, I've bought these things and am going to kill myself,” he said, according to the father's witness statement to police.

Sweden recently lowered its terror alert after raising it to 'high' for the first time in history in November 2015 in the wake of the attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. 

An asylum seeker was then swiftly arrested for planning violence in Sweden but was found to be innocent and released without charge and has since sought compensation from the Swedish government.

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