“A poison” • Pledged allegiance to IS – ready to “kill as many as possible”
The trial against the four terror defendants began today.
Two of them are brothers and the older of them is judged, according to Säpo, to have had an active and coordinating role. He has sworn allegiance to two IS leaders in Somalia and received terror instructions to “kill as many as possible” with a focus on Jewish targets.
The man, who is in his 25s, is suspected of having learned weapon handling and had contact with people to arrange remote-triggered bombs. He is also said to have acquired knowledge of how to manufacture and use Molotov cocktails and other explosives to “commit deadly attacks”. In addition, he is said to have recruited people to IS and distributed propaganda material.
His younger brother is also suspected of similar parts but is described as not as active as the older brother.
But how the two brothers ended up here appears to be a question mark for both close relatives and other people in their social circle.
The school, the drugs, the prison
The brothers’ mother has been questioned by Säpo and says that the older of the children converted to Islam when he was in grade nine. After having a hard time in junior high school, he changed schools and, according to his mother’s own statement, began to “hang out with a lot of immigrant youth”.
– (He) then came home one day and told me that he had converted, she says in the Säpo interview.
A few years later, the younger brother also converted to Islam. The mother describes it as the family being “complete Swedes” who are not religious at all. She thought that the son now became a Muslim was terrible and scary, according to the interrogation.
High school was also messy for the older brother, she says. He dropped out of the first school and was suspended from the second after threatening a teacher.
The teenager then started with crime and drugs, which he both used and sold. He also acted as a so-called car goalkeeper. Both brothers were convicted of drug offences, and after the older one served a two-month prison sentence, he became “different”.
According to the mother, he started going to the mosque every day. In the past he has on a few occasions gone to a prayer room in Stockholm, but from this period he went to the basement mosque in Tyresö every morning between 04 and 05 and stayed there all day.
– It was like poison for him, says the mother to Säpo.
The mother about the next step in radicalization
In the summer of 2023, the brothers went to Morocco together with other people. When they came home to Sweden, both started wearing religious Muslim clothing, something neighbors also testified to TV4 Nyheterna. The mother discovered during the same period that the younger brother started going to the mosque more often and praying more and more.
The brothers worked as substitutes in the school environment, but began to “neglect” a little at work.
It appears from Säpo’s preliminary investigation that they became increasingly radicalized and more and more advocated violent Islamist extremism. This was seen in, among other things, conversations on mobile phones, but Säpo could also hear it through a secret bugging of the mosque.
In February 2024, the older brother tried to join IS in Somalia but was stopped on a stopover in Turkey. In questioning, the mother says that she did not know about the trip.
When Säpo interrogated other people close to the brothers, no one discovered that they had become radicalized or otherwise expressed sympathy for the terrorist sect.
But in March, Säpo assessed that the terrorist preparations had become so intense that they chose to strike and ward off the threat. The trial against them now runs until the end of January. All deny any crime and have been tight-lipped in questioning.