Swedish PM wants EU borders, security tightened after Brussels terror attack

The EU bloc should tighten border controls and internal security, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in response to Monday’s terrorist attack in Brussels, in which a gunman claiming allegiance to IS shot dead two Swedes, presumably in response to the recent Quran burnings in Sweden.

Two Swedes were shot dead and a third wounded in central Brussels on Monday night by a man claiming to be a member of the Islamic State. The 45-year-old Tunisian claimed responsibility in a video posted online and was later shot by Brussels police.

“Everything indicates that this is a terrorist attack against Sweden and Swedish citizens, simply because they are Swedish”, said Kristersson during a press conference on Tuesday.

“These terrorists want to frighten us into obedience and silence. That will not happen,” he said, adding that Sweden and the European Union must better protect their borders and ensure that dangerous people cannot stay illegally in the region.

“This is a time for more security. We can’t be naive”, Kristersson added.

Brussels suspect already known in Sweden

Speaking about the gunman who was shot by the police, Fredrik Hallström, head of operations at the Swedish Security Service, said he was in Sweden about 10 years ago.

“What we now know is that this individual was in Sweden for a short period about ten years ago. The Swedish Security Service has not had any information about his activities or actions. We believe and assess that he may have travelled around Europe and the world with false identities,” he told SVT on Tuesday.

Hallström did not wish to comment on whether the perpetrator had committed any offences during his time in Sweden or was known to the police. However, the Swedish Migration Agency told Radio Ekot that the man had previously been in a Swedish prison and resided illegally in Sweden.

The offences for which he was convicted were not disclosed by the Swedish Migration Board, which could mean that he committed serious crimes such as planning terrorist activities.

Rising tensions over Quran burnings

Asked whether the terrorist could have been influenced by the Quran burnings in Sweden or the threats against Sweden by international terrorist organisations, Adam Samara, press officer for the Swedish Security Service said:

“As the Swedish Security Service has stated several times before, and not least because of the events of the past year, we know that lone individuals can be affected by events in the outside world,” he said.

Following several Quran burnings in Sweden this year, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) last month called for lone-wolf attacks in Sweden.

Under Swedish law, the burning of a religious book is protected by freedom of expression laws and the government is not allowed to interfere.

This year, several holy books have been burned and desecrated by both far-right activists and left-wing anti-Islam demonstrators.

This has angered many in the Muslim world, as the Swedish embassy in Baghdad was stormed by angry demonstrators this summer over an issue that is believed to have been one of the reasons why the Turkish government delayed Sweden’s NATO bid.

Sweden’s understanding of freedom of speech has reverberated all the way to Jakarta, where Indonesian MP Fail Zon, chairman of the House of Representatives Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, lodged a protest with the Swedish parliament over the Quran burnings.

In his complaint, Zon urged the Swedish parliament and government to take firm action against the Quran burnings, saying they violated people’s freedom of religion.

In Denmark, where similar Quran burnings have taken place, the issue has been taken seriously by the government, which is now seeking to ban Quran burnings on the kingdom’s territory.

“The burnings are deeply offensive and reckless acts committed by a few individuals. These few individuals do not represent the values on which Danish society is built,” said Foreign Minister and former prime minister Lars Rasmussen in July.

Not changing the terrorist alert level

Despite the terrorist attack in Brussels, the terrorist threat level in Sweden will not be affected, according to the Swedish Security Service.

Less than two months ago, the head of the Swedish Security Service decided to raise the terrorist threat level in Sweden from an elevated threat to a high threat, from three to four on a five-point scale.

At the time, Sweden’s Security Service said the decision to raise the terror threat level was not due to a single event but should be seen as a consequence of “a gradual deterioration in the threat picture against Sweden”, including in the wake of the Quran burnings.

“Risks like this (the Brussels terror attack) were behind this decision,” Kristersson said on Tuesday.

“Now we know with chilling clarity that there were reasons for the concerns that the security services and we in the government described at the time,” he added.

(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)