Uzbek citizen Rakhmat Akilov swore allegiance to Daesh before a heinous terrorist attack, in which he rammed a truck into a crowd of people on a pedestrian street in central Stockholm, murdering five people. Almost two years after the attack, Akilov appears to have the same sympathies and shows no sign of repentance.
Rakhmat Akilov, sentenced to life imprisonment for the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan Street, has been caught with a Daesh flag in his prison cell at a high security prison in Hall, the newspaper Expressen reported.
A self-made drawing representing the Daesh flag was hidden under the prayer mat in Akilov’s cell. The inmate originally denied that it was a Daesh flag, claiming the background was not black enough. When confronted by the investigator, he admitted that it was indeed the flag in question.
For doing this, he has received a formal warning from the Prison and Probation Service.
“Akilov is convicted of terrorist offences and there is a risk that the drawing can be perceived as offensive, scary or provocative by other prisoners. The fact that an individual inmate holds drawings of the Daesh flag can also witness of the support of violence-promoting organisations”, the warning said, as quoted by the newspaper.
Rakhmat Akilov’s time in a Swedish prison has been riddled with problems. Several attempts to put him among other prisoners have failed, as the terrorist almost immediately came under attack from fellow inmates.
At one point, Akilov was beaten by a gang criminal prisoner from Gothenburg. After the incident, the man admitted that his motive was to avenge of the victims of the Drottninggatan attack. Upon receiving death threats, Akilov was transferred from the high security Kumla bunker.
On several other occasions, though, Akilov himself was found to have threatened staff or behaved menacingly.
Rakhmat Akilov, a former asylum seeker who dodged expulsion, was sentenced by a Swedish court to life in prison for killing five people and injuring another 10 in a van ramming in Stockholm. During the trial, he claimed that his plot was “to kill as many Swedes as possible”. During a forensic investigation, he was found to have “contradictory morals” and a “simplified worldview” influenced by an extremist interpretation of Islam. Still, he was found sane.