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The case was the first ever in which the offence “conspiracy to commit a terrorist offence" was tried by a Swedish court. Conspiracy means cooperating with others with the intention of committing a crime. This can involve one person deciding to commit a crime in collusion with someone else, a person attempting to incite someone else to commit a crime, or that a person undertakes or offers to execute a crime.
“Conspiracy to commit a crime is generally difficult to prove. The fact that two instances have made two different judgements in this case is an indication of that. It is a good thing that the case was tried in a higher court," says Anders Thornberg, Head of the Department of Security Measures.
“There was not enough evidence to justify a conviction, but it is difficult to determine in each individual case if it would be better to intervene or to play the waiting game in order to collect more evidence. The primary task of the Security Service is to prevent crimes and, where that is not possible, to investigate crimes that have been committed," he says.
“The Security Service understands that the Court of Appeal deemed there was not enough evidence to conclusively prove that these individuals had conferred with al-Shabaab before their departure. However, this court did establish that these individuals were interested in and sympathised with the armed struggle," concludes Thornberg.
The duties of the Swedish Security Service
The Swedish Security Service is responsible for countering terrorism in Sweden. This means that we work to prevent attacks in Sweden and against Swedish interests abroad. This also means that we make every effort to prevent terrorist attacks from being plotted in or receiving support from within Sweden and that we investigate crimes linked to terrorism. This responsibility is based on several agreements that Sweden has made with other countries in order to counter terrorism.
