Prosecutor questions Swedish terror suspect

A Swedish prosecutor travelled to Sarajevo on Monday to question a Swede arrested in Bosnia last month on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack.

• Swede held in Kenya over suspected terror links (15 May 12)
• Swedish terror suspects plead 'not guilty' (13 Apr 12)
• 'Secret judges' in Danish terror case: Swede's rep (8 Apr 12)

Chief prosecutor for international issues Tomas Lindstrand and two intelligence agents were expected to be in Sarajevo from Monday to Wednesday, his office told AFP.

The 18-year-old Swedish citizen, who is originally from Serbia-Montenegro, was arrested in Sarajevo along with a Danish citizen of Turkish origin on October 20, suspected of plotting a terrorist attack.

Weapons and explosives were seized in connection with the arrests.

An investigation is underway in Sarajevo, but Swedish prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand has opened a separate preliminary inquiry in Sweden to determine whether the 18-year old had any accomplices in here.

"One of the reasons I have launched a preliminary investigation is that he is so young. It is not unreasonable to suspect that someone (in Sweden) has had influence over him," Lindstrand told Swedish media recently.

Last week, the British daily The Times reported that the Swede had links to terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and met him in Iraq.

And in a news report on Swedish public television on Sunday, the 18-year old's lawyer Kamenica Idriz said his client had confessed to Bosnian investigators that he had explosives and automatic weapons in his possession.

The Swede claimed to have acquired the materials out of curiosity, Idriz said.

Recent news reports have also indicated that the Swede may be the so-called recruiter who used the Internet nom-de-guerre "Maximus" in a search for disaffected European youth willing to go to Iraq to join the insurgency.

Over the past few weeks, police in Denmark have arrested seven men believed to have links with the Swede and the Dane of Turkish origin, saying they were suspected of planning a terror attack in Europe.

In October a NATO commander in Bosnia said the alliance was closely monitoring about 10 terror suspects in the former Yugoslav republic.

AFP