Suspect’s status as failed asylum-seeker saddens Stockholm

Associated Press

STOCKHOLM

Swedes questioned their country’s welcoming immigration policies with pride and pain Sunday after learning that an asylum-seeker from Uzbekistan was purportedly behind the truck rampage that killed four people, Stockholm’s deadliest extremist attack in years.

The Swedish capital was slowly, but resolutely, regaining its normal rhythm as details about the 39-year-old suspect in the attack emerged. Police said he had been ordered to leave Sweden in December because his request for a residence permit was rejected six months earlier.

Instead, he purportedly went underground, eluding authorities’ attempts to track down and deport him until a hijacked beer truck raced down a pedestrian street and rammed into an upscale department store Friday.

“It makes me frustrated,” Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told Swedish news agency TT on Sunday.

The suspect, who has been detained on suspicion of terrorist offenses, was known for having “been sympathetic to extremist organizations,” Jonas Hysing of Sweden’s national police said.

A second person was arrested on the same potential charge Sunday, and four others were being held by police. None of them have been identified.

Sweden has long been known for its open-door policy toward migrants and refugees.

But after the Scandinavian country of 10 million took in a record 163,000 refugees in 2015 – the highest per-capita rate in Europe – the government has tried to be more selective about which newcomers it allows to stay.

Swedish police said Sunday they had received roughly 12,500 referrals from the Swedish Migration Board of people who, like the suspect in the truck attack, had overstayed their welcome.

The suspect eluded authorities by giving police a wrong address after his residency request was rejected in June, said Hysing, the operative head of the attack investigation.

“The efforts to locate [these people] is both time-consuming and resource-intensive,” he said.

The range of mixed emotions – fear and fraternity, anger and openness, – also surfaced at memorial services and rallies held in Stockholm on Sunday to honor the attack victims.