Sweden 2020

22/01/2020: The Riksdag, the Parliament of Sweden, passed a new anti-terrorism bill banning all contact with terrorist organizations by 319 votes to 28. This law stipulates that actions aimed at promoting, strengthening or supporting a terrorist organization must be held as terrorist crimes. This may include dealing with weapons or ammunition, operating transportation or renting premises to a terrorist organization. However, the law is not retroactive, so the 300 Swedes who joined the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) are hardly worried by the measures taken by the Swedish authorities, especially since the proposal for another law criminalizing participation in a terrorist organization was rejected by 174 votes to 173 because the Legislative Council believes it conflicts with freedom of association, which is protected by the Constitution. According to researcher Magnus Ranstorp, these failures in the mechanisms of the Swedish legislative apparatus make this country the least strict of the Nordic countries in terms of the struggle against terrorism. 

However, no official assistance is provided for Swedish Jihadists held in Syria because according to the Foreign Ministry, it is not appropriate to use public funds to repatriate Swedes who have joined IS. On the other hand, children are more taken into account for repatriation efforts despite the difficulties encountered. (Source)

08/05/2020: Radical imam Ahmed Abdulkarim Ahmed Ahmed commonly known for his hardline and literal interpretation of Islam, was arrested by Säpo which thereafter applied to the Swedish Migration Board for his deportation under the Act on Special Controls of Certain Aliens. He was first arrested in June 2015 after a raid by Säpo in Vivalla, Örebro, for allegedly managing to get a “significant” number of people to travel to Syria to commit terrorist acts. The recruitment would have taken place from the fall of 2014 to the spring of 2015 and in private associations, he had praised Al-Qaeda and tried to recruit for this organization rather than for IS, but the case never led to prosecution. (Source)

13/05/2020: Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counter-Terrorism coordinator, announced that the pandemic period will certainly be conducive to new terrorist attacks carried out by reassured and emboldened fighters. The health sector of European countries, more vital than ever in the context of the spread of the coronavirus, has been mentioned as a very likely target of “right-wing extremists and jihadists”. (Source)

19/05/2020: The Swedish Financial Police (FIPO) and five local banks (Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB and Swedbank) announced the upcoming implementation of a pilot project in June aimed at strengthening their cooperation in the fight against terrorist financing as well as other financial crimes. New forms of information exchange under current legislation and will examine possible regulatory changes that may be necessary to make the work even more efficient, including the integration of additional financial institutions in the future. (Source)

25/05/2020: Death by Covid-19 at Huddinge Hospital in Stockholm of Swedish jihadist Abu Omar who had long been wanted by Säpo for his prominent role in the recruitment of Swedish jihadists. (Source)

09/07/2020: The Västmanland District Court in Sweden acquitted a 21-year-old Austrian man arrested during a search of his home in 2019 where IS propaganda materials as well as guides to making explosives were discovered. The accused claimed to have a certain curiosity towards this type of material but denied any intention of carrying out a terrorist act. According to the prosecutor who decided to appeal the outcome of this trial, a video showed the suspect walking in Västerås before stopping in front of a church and declaring: "you should go in there with a bomb belt ". (Source)

29/09/2020: A Quran teacher from Yemen living in Gothenburg was taken into custody after Säpo applied for his deportation on the grounds that he advocated a violent interpretation of Islam. He was granted a permanent residence permit in Sweden in September 2011, based on ties to his parents but was denied citizenship in 2018. He has been active in Sverige Förenade Muslimer Association (SFM) for several years. SFM has become a major hub for Gothenburg's and other parts of the country's violent Islamists. His brother was convicted of terrorism after he was arrested in eastern Greece along with former terrorist Mirsad Bektasevic on their way to IS. (Source)

06/11/2020: In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in France and Austria, the Swedish police have launched a special initiative currently covering Noa and the metropolitan regions of Stockholm, South and West as well as the central region in order to enable it to act more quickly against any threat, particularly by focusing on greater flexibility. This maneuver nevertheless contributed to spreading erroneous information according to which a terrorist attack in Sweden was imminent. The police had to call for caution regarding the reliability of this type of alert. (Source)

13/11/2020: In response to the terrorist attacks that crippled France and Austria, the European Interior Ministers published a Joint Declaration recalling European solidarity against terrorist threat and evoking new measures taken in the fight against terrorism notably the strengthening of the Schengen Area through the digital recording of entries and exits, and closer cooperation with third countries in order to combat terrorist threats. The digital domain was addressed in order to counter extremist propaganda in all its forms, the apology of violence and the financing of hatred and violent extremism. The strengthening of the external borders of the European Union was considered to protect against any intrusion by foreign fighters, in particular through the relevant functionalities of the Schengen Information System (SIS). (Source)

17/11/2020: The government wants to increase the competence of grant-giving authorities and organizations on violent extremism and anti-democratic environments as it has been reported that some non-profit associations receiving those grants are using them to finance crime - and in the worst case, terrorism. "No public funds should go to anti-democratic activities" says Justice and Migration Minister Morgan Johansson Therefore, a government inquiry has been appointed which, among other things, will investigate a support function for grant-giving organisations and roughly 40 authorities will jointly try to put an end to it. (Source)

30/11/2020: Arrest in Arlanda in Sweden of a woman returning from Syria where she had gone in 2014 with her two-year-old child whom she had kidnapped. Converted to Islam, she joined the territory of the Islamic State to have a first-hand experience of the Caliphate way of life. The child's father had reported her to the authorities when she was missing, but she had already left Sweden, making him believe that she was going on vacation to Türkiye. (Source)

300 Swedish fighters went to Syria to join the Islamic State banner. According to Säpo, half of them have returned to Sweden and 40 criminal investigations into these foreign fighters are underway. (Source)

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