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Man who sent threatening mail to ministers arrested at Stockholm Airport

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Man who sent threatening mail to ministers arrested at Stockholm Airport
File photo: Stina Stjernkvist/TT

A 42-year-old man has been arrested at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport on suspicion of making serious threats against ministers as well as attempted murder.

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The man was arrested after arriving on a flight from Thailand on Saturday, TT reports.

“He sent mail to a number of individuals, including hateful content, with the level of threat in many cases exacerbated by the presence of a powder in the envelopes. The powder proved to be harmless,” police prosecutor Henrik Söderman told TT.

The 42-year-old was held on suspicion of the offences in absentia in April. He was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder as well as 26 counts of serious threatening behaviour.

His threats were aimed at ministers, municipal councillors and other public figures, Söderman said.

The attempted murder did not target any heads of government or similar figures, neither did it target anyone in Sweden, Dag Enander, spokesperson with Swedish police security agency Säpo, told TT.

The offence took place in Europe, but no specific country has been named.

The man is thought to have manufactured an item at his home in the Västra Götaland region before taking it abroad, according to a report by newspaper Göteborgs-Posten.

“The suspicion of attempted murder does not relate to any target in Sweden,” Enander confirmed.

Söderman added that the letters included hateful messages and that forensic evidence had connected them to the 42-year-old.

“He wrote hateful messages. They are different types of messages saying people should die or be killed,” he said.

One of the officials to have received hate mail connected to the man has been confirmed as Jacob Högfeldt, a municipal spokesperson with the Moderate Party in the town of Strängnäs.

Högfeldt is reported to have received in August last year an envelope containing white powder and a message reading “you will die soon”.

“I dropped the piece of paper and left the room. This is clearly not the type of message or letter you would wish on anyone. At first you get scared and a bit emotional. Then you get resentful and angry that people can act in this way,” the local politician said.

The suspected crimes took place between August and September last year, but police were unable to apprehend the man until he returned to Sweden on a flight from Thailand on Saturday.

“We have carried out preliminary investigations for some time, but cannot go into more detail with regard to how we identified the individual,” Enander said.

The man has denied committing the offences, according to prosecutor Söderman.

Högfeldt said he was glad to hear of the arrest of a suspect in the case.

“I think it’s incredibly important that this type of behaviour is prosecuted in order to protect our democracy and our ability to get politicians of different levels to get involved,” he said.

The 42-year-old will be further questioned by police in coming days. Any charges must be pressed by May 24th.

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