Stockholm lorry attacker jailed for lifestyles

A man who killed five people when he drove a stolen lorry into a crowd of shoppers in Stockholm last year has been given a life sentence.

Rakhmat Akilov, from Uzbekistan, had said he wanted to punish Sweden for joining a coalition against the radical Islamic State group.

In January, he was charged with terror-related murder and attempted murder for the attack with a stolen beer truck on 7 April, 2017.

Image: Rakhmat Akilov, 39, was believed to go by a number of names

Akilov hijacked the vehicle outside a restaurant in central Stockholm and sped some 500m down a pedestrian street, ploughing into shoppers before crashing the truck into a department store.

The failed asylum seeker also planned to blow himself up but he failed, and caused a smaller explosion inside the truck when a suspected bomb made of five gas canisters with dozens of screws, blades and smaller metal objects went off.

Image: Akilov in court earlier this year

He was arrested the same day outside a gas station in a Stockholm suburb after he was recognised from a CCTV image and quickly admitted to being the driver of the truck.

The victims were British father Chris Bevington, a Belgian woman and three Swedes, including an 11-year-old girl.

Another 14 people were injured in the attack.

"The defendant has among a series of crimes been found guilty of terrorist offence by murder in five cases. The penalty has been set to life imprisonment," the Stockholm District Court said in a statement.

Image: Chris Bevington was the British victim of the attack

The prosecution had demanded a life sentence, while defence lawyer Johan Eriksson said his client had been co-operative throughout the investigation and should be given a time-limited sentence.

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During the court proceedings that started on 13 February and ended on 2 May, Mr Eriksson said that "Akilov took the right to determine the fate of so many people. Now it is the turn of the democratic rule of law to determine the fate of Akilov".

He was found guilty of five counts of terror-related murder, 119 counts of attempted murder and 24 cases of endangering the life of others.

Original Article

World

September 06, 2018