An Uzbek asylum seeker who confessed to wanting to mow down ‘infidels’ in an April 2017 Stockholm truck attack that killed five people goes on trial Tuesday accused of terrorism.
Rakhmat Akilov had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State on the eve of his assault in one of Europe’s safest cities, though the militant group never claimed responsibility.
The prosecution’s charge sheet, presented in late January, paints a picture of a lonely illegal alien working odd construction jobs who drank alcohol and took drugs, and who acted alone.
On the afternoon of Friday, April 7, Akilov stole a beer delivery truck and barrelled down a bustling pedestrian shopping street, swerving wildly to hit as many people as possible before smashing into the facade of a department store. He killed five and injured 10.
“I was walking down the street … and you don’t expect something like that to happen… All of a sudden, this truck ran me over,” Irina Zamanova, a 38-year-old Ukrainian woman who lost her lower right leg in the attack, told AFP.
She said it was important for her to attend the trial and testify even though it would be ‘trying’ to relive the events of that day.
Akilov, born in 1978, was arrested in a Stockholm suburb hours after his attack thanks to public transport video surveillance footage, and confessed.
