Evidence against a Swedish man arrested for allegedly trying to hijack a plane points to a crime so serious it is unprecedented in Sweden, police said today.
"This is a very, very serious crime and very unusual in Sweden," police spokesman Mr Ulf Palm told reporters without elaborating. "Off hand, I can't think of a similar incident in Sweden".
Swedish citizen Mr Kerim Sadok Chatty (29), who is of Tunisian origin, was seized on Thursday as he was boarding a plane to London when a gun was discovered in his luggage.
Prosecutors asked a court today to detain him for two weeks as they finalise charges. In their request to the court, prosecutors said Mr Chatty was accused of "serious crime" as well as planning a hijack, aerial sabotage and weapons offences.
Mr Palm said the addition of "serious crime" to the list of accusations meant that new evidence had come to light showing the crime was more grave than believed at first.
Mr Chatty was arrested just days before the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Swedish intelligence sources have said the suspect, known to have taken flying lessons in the United States, was planning to hijack a plane and crash it into a US embassy in Europe.
But that claim was denied by Ms Margareta Linderoth, the head of counter-terrorism at Sweden's Sapo security police.