Tuesday 18,Febr,2025{HMC} A Swedish court on Monday sentenced four men to prison for participating in the Islamic State (IS) network, including recruitment, weapons training, and propaganda activities, while acquitting three of them of planning an attack inside Sweden.
The Nacka District Court handed down sentences ranging between three and six-and-a-half years to the four Swedish nationals, citing their direct involvement in IS operations in Somalia. However, it dismissed charges that three of them had been plotting a terrorist attack inside Sweden, ruling that the evidence did not establish a concrete plan for an imminent strike.
Convictions and Sentences
The court found that between 2023 and 2024, the men actively supported IS by recruiting new members, conducting arms training, and spreading propaganda for the militant group. The convicted individuals are:
Omar Yasser Ahmed Atia, 21, sentenced to six-and-a-half years.
Daniel Elias Johansson, 25, sentenced to six years.
Rasmus Erik Johansson, 23, sentenced to five-and-a-half years.
Elyas Mohamed Hakamali, 63, sentenced to three years.
Three of them had also been charged with preparing a terrorist crime in Sweden, but the court found insufficient evidence to prove they had a specific target or operational plan.
“The district court did not consider that there was a sufficiently clear plan for an intended terrorist offence,” the ruling stated.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority, which had accused the suspects of intending to kill or injure civilians in an IS-backed attack, expressed disappointment with the acquittals but said it respected the ruling.
One of the convicted men, Elyas Mohamed Hakamali, 63, a longtime imam in Tyresö, south of Stockholm, was a central figure in the case. He had been the leader of a local Islamic cultural association and its basement mosque for over two decades before his arrest.
Authorities detained him on April 17, 2024, during a pre-dawn raid, marking a significant moment in the Swedish Security Service’s (Säpo) counterterrorism efforts. Prosecutors accused him of actively recruiting members, including young converts, for IS activities in Somalia. His mosque, which had received nearly half a million kroner in state funding since 2016, is now under investigation for potential misuse of funds related to radicalization efforts.
Säpo believes that Hakamali played a key role in radicalizing and recruiting the younger men involved in the case. According to prosecutors, he taught extremist ideology to children and youth at the mosque, a claim that has deeply unsettled Sweden’s religious communities.
The investigation also revealed that two of the convicted individuals, brothers aged 23 and 25, had allegedly received direct instructions from IS in Somalia to “kill as many infidels as possible, with Jewish targets as the main targets.” Prosecutors say the brothers had discussed seeking minors under 18 who were “ready to die as martyrs” and could “kill many” in attacks.
Wiretapped conversations captured them speaking about potential targets, including government buildings, police, intelligence agencies, and synagogues in Sweden. Authorities say the group had links to an organized criminal gang in Tyresö, which supplied them with a firearm and an electric stun gun.
The defence lawyers for Atia and Johansson indicated that their clients would appeal the verdicts, while the attorneys for the other two did not immediately comment.
Swedish authorities arrested three of the suspects on March 7, 2024, in coordinated raids across Stockholm, including Tyresö. Hakamali was arrested separately on April 17, 2024, following a second phase of investigations.
Swedish Security Police (Säpo) had described the arrests as a preventative operation to avert a potential attack, but details on the suspected plot remained classified.
Hiiraan online
