The Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, announced this Tuesday that he will travel to Brussels on Wednesday, where on Monday two fans of the Swedish soccer team died in an attack, an act that he considered directed against his country.
“Tomorrow I will go to Brussels to pay tribute and mourn the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attack,” Kristersson announced on the social network X.
Previously, and on the same social network, the Swedish Prime Minister thanked the “international solidarity” directed towards his country after the announcement of the attack in the Belgian capital.
“As we mourn our victims, my Government is working closely with relevant agencies and international partners. Together, we are united against terrorism,” Kristersson added.
Today, the Swedish Prime Minister, and in reference to the attack, declared to the local media that “everything indicates that this is a terrorist attack directed at Sweden and Swedish citizens, simply because they are Swedes.”
The perpetrator of the attack, identified as Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian, was killed by police early today in a cafe in Brussels.
The suspect was illegally in Belgium, where he unsuccessfully sought asylum in 2019, and was identified by the police for several crimes, but not for violent extremism, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said this morning.
“So far we have not detected any evidence linking this man to his involvement in a terrorist network,” said the Belgian liberal politician in statements to Flemish television VRT.
De Croo stressed that “today everything indicates that this man acted completely individually.” According to federal prosecutors, the attacker, who was riding a motorcycle, followed Swedish soccer fans traveling in a taxi late Monday afternoon and fired a high-caliber automatic weapon as he exited the vehicle.
According to sources from the Italian news agency Ansa, the suspect landed on the island of Lampedusa in a small boat in 2011.
Abdesalem Lassoued traveled to Sweden after a brief stay in Italy, and was subsequently expelled by the Swedish authorities, returning to Italy in 2016, where he was considered “radicalized” by the DIGOS security services, the same sources indicated.
On that occasion he expressed his intention to join the ‘jihadist’ fight. Then, and also already identified by the Italian intelligence services, he left for Belgium. She was photographed in Genoa in 2021.
According to police sources, he may have chosen to attack Swedish citizens because he was expelled from the Scandinavian country.
Source: TSF
