During two periods – 2023 and 2024 – the now 18-year-old man lived in an HVB home in Skåne, according to the police's preliminary investigation.
It was also there that he is suspected of having planned a terrorist attack against the Stockholm Culture Festival with the hope of murdering as many visitors as possible.
During the police interrogation, the HVB staff had good things to say about him.
"Such an incredibly nice guy, and sympathetic and loving," says one of them.
“Dangerous guy”
A group leader also says that from the first placement, they saw him as "a dangerous guy". Not because he was a dangerous person, but because he had such a hard time saying no. He is described as "incredibly" easily influenced and easily led.
The interviews show that the staff were concerned about his level of maturity and social abilities.
A very, very small boy who doesn't understand the world, says a social worker who has worked with him.
We probably wanted an investigation right from the first placement, she says.
According to the staff, he had difficulty making friends his own age and says that he preferred to turn to the staff or to much younger people. According to the group leader, he had “difficulty communicating” and expressed himself as a younger person.
He was reportedly radicalized when he was placed in the home. According to a staff member, who is Muslim, he said he professed the Salafist branch of Islam, advocated jihad and said it was okay to torture non-believers.
The family broke up
His parents had actively distanced themselves from him, largely because of their son's religious beliefs, according to staff. He reportedly talked to the family about ISIS and said he was going to "blow up," which reportedly led to them cutting off contact and reporting him to the police.
The staff says he had an IS flag in his apartment and that he listened to suspicious audio files and videos in Arabic. Concerned about his radical Islamism, the HVB home put him in contact with the crime prevention organization Flamman in Malmö.
In connection with the 18-year-old's arrest and detention in February, a minor mental health assessment was conducted that showed that he may suffer from a serious mental disorder.
TT has been in contact with the 18-year-old's lawyer, who has declined an interview.
The 18-year-old man is charged with, among other things, planning a terrorist attack against the Stockholm Culture Festival. He was arrested in February this year.
He appeared on the police radar in the late summer of 2024. Around the turn of the year, the prosecutor decided that the police would work undercover.
An "undercover" police officer approached the suspect and gained his trust, including by bringing a number of firearms with him, which the 18-year-old handled and posed with in a photo.
The 18-year-old is also said to have obtained ingredients for explosives and begun manufacturing, but never built a finished bomb.
The police officer and the 18-year-old also went to Kungsträdgården in Stockholm to conduct reconnaissance before the attack. Shortly afterwards, the man was arrested by the national task force.
Together with a 17-year-old boy, he is also charged with an attempted murder of a man in Germany in August 2024.
