Suspect in Stockholm Attack Confesses to Committing 'Terrorist Act'

Four days after the deadly incident in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, the lawyer for the main suspect in the incident announced on Tuesday, April 22, that he has officially confessed to 'committing a terrorist act.' Swedish media reported on Friday, April 18, that the driver of a beer truck had driven onto a sidewalk and into a store on one of Stockholm's main streets, running over several people. The Prime Minister of Sweden described the attack as 'terrorist' in the early hours following the incident. As a result of this attack, four people lost their lives and several others were injured. The following day, on Saturday, April 19, the Swedish police identified the arrested individual in connection with the attack as a 39-year-old Uzbek man. On Tuesday, the appointed lawyer for this Uzbek citizen, identified as 'Rahmat Akilov,' announced that he had confessed to committing a 'terrorist act.' No further information has been released regarding this individual's affiliation with any specific group, and no group has claimed responsibility for his actions. However, statements from police officials in the first couple of days indicated that the arrested individual was known to security authorities, but no connection to extremist groups had been discovered. In this context, Reuters cites the head of Sweden's security police, who stated at a press conference on Saturday that 'last year we received information [about this individual], but no connection to extremist circles was observed.' The use of vehicles to attack people and instill fear and violence is one of the methods that al-Qaeda recommended to its supporters in 2010, and in recent years, the Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for some attacks carried out using this method. Although no group has yet claimed responsibility for the Stockholm attack on Friday, ISIS recently accepted responsibility for the London attack, describing the assailant as one of its soldiers.