(Stockholm) Sweden, which had raised its terrorist alert level this summer, saw its worst fears come true with the death of two of its fellow citizens in an attack in Brussels, and is preparing to live under a lasting threat.
“Never in recent history have Sweden and Swedish interests been as threatened as today,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday during a press conference dedicated to this attack.
The Nordic country is in mourning by the attack which cost the lives of two Swedish football fans and injured a third, who came to watch the qualifying match for the Belgium-Sweden Euro in the Belgian capital on Monday evening, at 7 p.m.
The perpetrator of the attack is a radicalized 45-year-old Tunisian who was illegally staying in Belgium. He was spotted and fatally injured by police on Tuesday.
The Swedish Migration Agency revealed on Tuesday that he had served a prison sentence in Sweden between 2012 and 2014.
“He served a prison sentence in Sweden in 2012-2014,” said office spokesperson Jesper Tengroth, without wanting to specify the reason for the sentence and its duration.
According to the spokesperson for the Swedish intelligence service (Säpo), Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, he “was able to use different identities during his trips to Europe”.
It was “a terrorist attack targeting Swedes,” said the Swedish Prime Minister.
“The lives of two innocent people were ended. These are two people who will never return home,” he noted, his tone serious. “It’s unimaginably sad.”
A tribute ceremony with the Swedish and Belgian prime ministers will take place on Wednesday in Brussels.
This attack is a sign that individuals “want to frighten us and push us into silence and obedience,” according to Mr. Kristersson. ” It will not happen “.
“It was risks of this type that led Säpo to raise the terrorist threat level from three to four last summer. Today we know with frightening clarity that there were reasons for the concerns expressed by the government, he added.
On August 17, Sweden had to raise its terrorist risk alert level to four on a scale of five due to tensions caused by the Koran burnings that had occurred on its soil since the start of the year.
These desecrations dealt a blow to relations with several Muslim countries, the Swedish embassy in Baghdad having been burned in July while a Molotov cocktail targeted the representation in Beirut in August.
Al-Qaeda had at the same time called for terrorist attacks in the Scandinavian country.
“Put away your swimsuits and go home!” »
The intelligence services indicated on Tuesday that they were maintaining this level of vigilance. “This situation is serious and the Swedish security service believes that it will continue,” according to them.
But with the attack in Brussels, the threat suddenly materialized against Swedish citizens.
“We were looking at the Swedish fans and we were really worried about their safety,” Andreas Matz, a journalist for Swedish public radio who was present at the stadium and who, like the fans, was escorted to his hotel by the Swedish daily DN, told the daily DN. Belgian police.
“When you see the Swedish fans with their yellow jerseys, it’s a wonderful joy […] Now, in the future, I’ll say to myself every time, “Damn, are you really going to wear these jerseys? “” “, he added.
The same astonishment gripped the head of security at the Swedish Football Federation, Martin Fredman.
“We told them to put away all their blue and yellow jerseys (colors of the Swedish flag, editor’s note) and go home,” Martin Fredman, head of security at the Federation, explained to AFP.
“As Swedes, we are very unaccustomed to being targeted,” he stressed.
Traveling by bus “through the streets of Brussels with large numbers of police officers with automatic weapons and law enforcement weapons to help us enter our hotels is something few of us have experienced before” , said Mr. Fredman.
“And yet I have worked as a police officer all my life,” he added.