Sweden charges man for preparing suicide bomb

A 20-year-old Swedish national has been charged with preparing to a make a suicide bomb, a prosecutor said today. Prosecutor Ewamari Haggkvist says the suspect, who denies the charges, “could have seriously hurt Sweden.”

“He told relatives he had sympathies for (the Islamic State group) and would blow himself up for them in Sweden,” Haggkvist told The Associated Press. Haggkvist didn’t say where, when or how the explosives would have been used.

The man “has acquired, stored and compiled liquids and objects with the intent to make a suicide bomb,” she said.  “That is acetone, steel bullets, a pressure-cooker and a cell phone, among others.”

Haggkvist said today the man was twice stopped in Turkey in June 2015, likely as he tried to continue to Syria to join the Islamic State group, and sent back to Sweden. She said the man was arrested February 11 after “purchasing objects with the intent to create a bomb” in January.