Prosecutors said Ibrahim M. G. was tasked by the Islamic State Khorasan Province group with retaliating against Quran-burning incidents in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, which inflamed tensions in Muslim-majority countries.
The “concrete” plans, which involved both accused co-conspirators, included a firearms attack on police officers and others “in the vicinity of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm,” prosecutors said, adding that the men “researched the local conditions around the possible crime scene on the internet and tried several times, albeit unsuccessfully, to obtain weapons.”
The men are also accused by prosecutors of collecting €2,000 in donations intended to help Islamic State members imprisoned in northern Syria.
A wave of Quran burnings rocked Sweden over the last couple of years, leading to protests and rioting.
Islamic State Khorasan Province emerged in 2014 and has become increasingly influential in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2021, following the withdrawal of American forces from the region.
Denis Leven is hosted at POLITICO under the EU-funded EU4FreeMedia residency program.