STOCKHOLM. The Swedish secret services have announced the arrest of five people suspected of preparing a “terrorist act” in Sweden in retaliation for the copy of the Koran recently set on fire by a right-wing extremist. “International ties with violent Islamic extremism” are suspected, the Säpo, the national intelligence service, said, adding that “an attack is not considered imminent”.
In January, a far-right activist burned a copy of the Koran at a demonstration near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, an act that sparked sharp reactions across the Muslim world.
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The coordinated arrests took place this morning in the cities of Eskilstuna, Linköping and Strängnäs, all within a radius of 200 kilometers from Stockholm. Susanna Trehörning, from the anti-terrorism unit of the security police, quoted by the news agency Tt, he explained that “we cannot wait for a crime to occur before intervening”. The men arrested are suspected of having links to international Islamic terrorism.
And, he confirmed, this is one of several cases that are being dealt with in the wake of the action of the far-right provocateur Rasmus Paludan, who burned a copy of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm last January: a gesture that caused protests and indignation throughout the Islamic world. For the occasion “various international calls have been launched to commit attacks in Sweden”, added Trehörning.