STOCKHOLM: A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced a radicalized and rejected Uzbek asylum seeker to life in prison for terrorism after he mowed down pedestrians with a stolen truck in central Stockholm last year, killing five people.
The assault mirrored other truck attacks in 2016 that left scores dead in France, Germany and the UK. It occurred as Sweden grappled with the aftermath of having taken in more migrants per capita than any other country in Europe.
Arrested hours after the April 7, 2017 attack, Rakhmat Akilov, 40, who swore allegiance to Daesh on the eve of the assault, said that members of Daesh had given him the green light on encrypted chat sites to carry out a suicide attack in the Swedish capital.
However, the extremist organization never claimed responsibility for the assault.
The Stockholm district court convicted Akilov of “terrorist crimes” for five murders and 119 attempted murders in one of Stockholm’s busiest shopping streets.
Three Swedes — including a girl who would have turned 12 on Thursday — were killed along with a 41-year-old British man and a 31-year-old Belgian woman. Another 10 people were injured.
Akilov, who confessed almost immediately to the attack, expressed no remorse during his nearly three-month trial.
His gaze often remained empty, even when photographs and footage of the bloody attack were projected onto a large screen in the courtroom.
“The effects (the attack) had on Sweden were rather severe and his intention was to scare the Swedish public,” senior judge Ragnar Palmkvist told AFP.
“He acted with the direct intention to kill as many people as possible,” the court said in its verdict, adding that Akilov would be expelled after serving the life term, which averages 16 years in Sweden.
After swerving wildly to hit as many people as possible, Akilov’s rampage ended when the truck smashed into the facade of a large department store.
Another judge in the trial, Carl Rosenmuller, said Akilov saw the victims as “pins in a game,” not human beings.
An explosive device — made up of five gas canisters and nails — did not explode as planned and caused fire damage only to the truck.
Akilov fled the scene, running into a nearby metro station, and was arrested several hours later after being identified by public transport video surveillance images and eyewitness reports.
Sweden jails radicalized Uzbek truck attacker for life
Sweden jails radicalized Uzbek truck attacker for life
US Justice Department official eyes cases against Cuba leaders as Trump floats ‘friendly takeover’
- “Working group” formed to build cases against people connected to the Cuban government
- Trump’s has increasingly displayed aggressive stance against Cuba’s communist leadership
MIAMI: The top Justice Department prosecutor in Miami is considering criminal investigations of Cuban government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry comes as President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover” of the communist-run island.
Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has created a “working group” that includes federal prosecutors and officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to try to build cases against people connected to the Cuban government and its Communist Party, according to one of the people. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the effort.
It was not immediately clear which Cuban officials the office is targeting or what criminal charges prosecutors may be looking to bring.
The Justice Department said in a statement Friday that “federal prosecutors from across the country work every day to pursue justice, which includes efforts to combat transnational crime.”
The effort is taking place against the backdrop of Trump’s increasingly aggressive stance against Cuba’s communist leadership.
Emboldened by the US capture of Cuba’s close ally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump last month said his administration was in high-level talks with officials in Havana to pursue “a friendly takeover” of the country. He repeated those claims this week, saying his attention would turn back to Cuba once the war with Iran winds down.
“They want to make a deal so bad,” Trump said of Cuba’s leadership.
While Cuba has faded from Washington’s radar as a major national security threat in recent decades, it remains a priority in the US Attorney’s office in Miami, whose political, economic and cultural life is dominated by Cuban-American exiles.
The FBI field office has a dedicated Cuba group that in 2024 was instrumental in the arrest of former US Ambassador Victor Manuel Rocha on charges of serving as a secret agent of Cuba stretching back to the 1970s.
In recent weeks, several Miami Republicans, in addition to Florida Sen. Rick Scott, have called on the Trump administration to reopen its criminal investigation into the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated by anti-communist exiles.
In a letter to Trump on Feb. 13, lawmakers including Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez highlighted decades-old news reports indicating that former President Raúl Castro — the head of Cuba’s military at the time — gave the order to shoot down the unarmed Cessna aircraft.
“We believe unequivocally that Raúl Castro is responsible for this heinous crime,” lawmakers wrote. “It is time for him to be brought to justice.”
While no indictment against Castro has been announced, Florida’s attorney general said this week that he would open a state-level investigation into the crime.
The Trump administration has also accused Cuba of not cooperating with American counterterrorism efforts, adding it alongside North Korea and Iran to a select few nations the US considers state sponsors of terrorism.
The designation stems from Cuba’s harboring of US fugitives and its refusal to extradite several Colombian rebel leaders while they were engaged in peace talks with the South American nation.
