June 7 (UPI) — The man who drove a delivery truck through a crowd of people in Sweden last year, killing five, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.
Rakhmat Akilov, a native of Uzbekistan, was sentenced in a Stockholm court on 119 counts of attempted murder and 24 counts of endangering others.
With a stolen truck, Akilov ran down pedestrians on a busy Stockholm street on April 7, 2017. He swore allegiance to the Islamic State, but the terror network never claimed responsibility.
Akilov fled the scene but was quickly arrested and confessed to police.
Akilov unsuccessfully sought residency in Sweden in 2016 and was ordered to leave the country. Authorities said he disappeared and was eventually put on an official fugitive list.
Akilov pleaded guilty to terror charges in February. Prosecutors urged the court to jail him for life, saying he’s a danger to society and “will be so in the future as long as he has the same beliefs that he has today.”
The court called the attack “perhaps the most serious crime ever carried out in Sweden.”
The average years served for a life term in Sweden is 16 years. Akilov will be deported from Sweden once his sentence is served and will be barred from returning.
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