Swedish prosecutor charges man over planned Islamic State attack in Stockholm

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish prosecutors on Thursday charged a Syrian-Swedish dual national captured in an undercover sting operation with planning a suicide bomb attack on a crowded Stockholm culture festival, on behalf of the Islamic State militant group.

The prosecutor said the 18-year-old, who was arrested in February, had been planning to blow himself up at the Stockholm Culture Festival which drew 2 million visitors over the span of five days in August.

Described as a “self-radicalised” young man who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, he was charged with planning a terrorist crime and being a member of a terrorist organisation. The man denies the charges and was not named by the prosecutor.

“There was a clear will to commit an attack, an attack with the intent to cause as much damage to human life as possible,” prosecutor Carl Mellberg told a news conference.

The man’s lawyer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Police used an undercover agent who claimed to be part of a militant Islamist movement and coaxed the man into believing they would carry out the attack together.

The suspect was arrested after he had reconnoitered locations and purchased materials to make a bomb, and bought a body camera to record the attack.

The Islamic State, which imposed hardline Islamist rule over millions of people in Syria and Iraq from 2014-2019, is attempting to stage a comeback after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The man was also indicted, along with a 17-year-old boy, for planning to murder a man in a small town in southern Germany last year. They both deny the charges.

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander; editing by Niklas Pollard)