Swedish police have arrested an Uzbek migrant this week on suspicion of terrorism who had previously been deported from the country and held as an example of successful integration.
The man, who is said to be in his 30s and is also a citizen of Kazakhstan, was said to have been driving near the Stortorget square in Östersund when he was pulled over by armed police and arrested with investigators discovering items in the car the led them to believe he had been preparing a potential murder, Nyheter Idag reports.
After the arrest, the Swedish security police Sapo and the prosecutor’s office connected a potential terrorist motive to the man’s actions.
Witnesses to the arrest said that the man had driven in a strange manner but said he did not appear threatening, with one witness saying they assumed at the time the man was being arrested for being intoxicated while driving.
According to newspaper Expressen, the man was deported from Sweden in 2016 and was back in the country on a temporary residency permit.
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He had originally come to Sweden in 2012 and claimed that he required asylum after his family had been threatened because his father had prosecuted a mafia boss. He later admitted the story was a fabrication.
A friend of the man and his family, who had also come to Sweden with him, claimed: “They’re a fantastic family. They wanted to become Swedes properly, live as we do.” Nyheter Idag has also reported that a local newspaper praised the family for their integration into Swedish society.
The article quoted by Nyheter Idag would identify the suspect as Dilshod Usmanov, stating that he and his wife had learned Swedish and acquired jobs as healthcare assistants.
The man also told investigators that he had felt threatened to carry out an attack, leading to Prosecutor Henrik Olin to state that another person was likely involved.
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Other Swedish media have speculated that the Uzbek national may have links to Stockholm terror attacker and Islamic State supporter Rahkmat Akilov, who is also originally from Uzbekistan, but prosecutor Olin refused to comment on any possible connections.
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