Friday, April 15, 2016

Swedish man goes on trial for 'planning terror bombing'

Swedish man goes on trial for 'planning terror bombing'

A young Swedish man turned in by his mother has gone on trial for allegedly planning a suicide terror attack. The man was allegedly influenced by "Islamic State" ("IS") and al-Qaeda.
Symbolbild Moschee in Schweden
A 20-year-old self-radicalized Swede accused of trying to build a bomb to carry out a terror attack went on trial on Friday, months after his mother reported him to intelligence services.
Prosecutors accuse Sevigin Aydin of buying bomb making materials similar to those used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings in the US state of Massachusetts. 
Testifying on Friday, an expert from the Swedish Defense Research Agency said the six bottles of acetone, matches, steel balls, a pressure cooker, electric wire and batteries found during a police raid could have been used to make a firebomb or shrapnel bomb, Swedish Radio reported.
But the expert said the bomb would have lacked gunpowder to make a pressure cooker bomb similar to that used in Boston.
Prosecutor Ewamari Haggkvist told the Attunda District Court, near the capital of Stockholm, that Aydin wanted to carry out jihad in Sweden and become a martyr.
Aydin denied any intention to carry out a terror attack.
 
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Prosecutors also seized a mobile phone with the password "jihad," and accused the suspect of accessing Islamic State and al-Qaeda websites. They also accused him of downloading a "mujahedeen guide" with instructions on how to build bombs.
Aydin was in June twice expelled from Turkey, where prosecutors believe he intended to cross into Syria to join IS. His family then took away his passport, at which point he said he planned to carry out an attack in Sweden.
Aydin's father later told police the suspect told him, "I do not want to live. I have bought this stuff and am going to kill myself."
The accused was arrested in February after his mother notified the Swedish intelligence service Sapo that her son had bomb making materials.
If convicted, he could face life in prison.

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