Swedish Court Said Ostersund Terror Suspect Not Uzbek National - Tashkent

A man detained in central Sweden's Ostersund district on suspicion of plotting a ramming attack two days before his arrest on August 15, as well as possible involvement in the killing of five people with a truck in Stockholm in 2017, is not an Uzbek national as previously claimed by media, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Friday

TASHKENT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2019) A man detained in central Sweden's Ostersund district on suspicion of plotting a ramming attack two days before his arrest on August 15, as well as possible involvement in the killing of five people with a truck in Stockholm in 2017, is not an Uzbek national as previously claimed by media, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"On August 29, the diplomatic mission received an official response [requested by the Uzbek Embassy in Berlin] from the Ostersund district court that the detainee was not a citizen of Uzbekistan," the Foreign Ministry stated.

Sweden's Sveriges Radio had reported that the detainee in Ostersund was a native of Central Asia. He was twice refused a residence permit and in 2016 was ordered to leave the country, but managed to stay and even obtain the permit on his third attempt.

The Swedish Security Police is currently investigating the suspect's possible link to Uzbek national Rakhmat Akilov, who was responsible for the 2017 terrorist attack in Stockholm.

Swedish media reported on August 15 that the suspect tried to ram into a crowd of passersby, but crashed into a flowerbed. Police found suspicious objects in his car, but have not yet officially confirmed this information.

In April 2017, a stolen truck rammed into a crowd of people on Drottninggatan street, a major pedestrian area in Stockholm. At least five people were killed and 15 more were injured in the incident, which Swedish authorities classified as a terrorist attack. Shortly afterward, Swedish police detained Akilov, who later pleaded guilty to the ramming attack.