A man who tried to board a flight to Britain from Sweden with a gun in his hand luggage pleaded guilty today to two counts of illegal possession of firearms.
Mr Kerim Sadok Chatty, a 29-year-old Muslim of Tunisian origin was seized at Vasteras airport 100 km (60 miles) west of Stockholm on August 29th as he was about to board a Ryanair passenger jet with 189 people on board bound for London.
Mr Chatty was originally also held on suspicion of planning to hijack the plane, but prosecutors dropped that investigation for lack of evidence.
He was held for a month in custody but released when prosecutors said that would not hinder the investigation. "It was stupid to bring a weapon through the security check, Mr Chatty told the court. "I was under a great deal of stress."
He said he had forgotten the weapon was in his toilet bag.
During the investigation police found a second gun in Mr Chatty's possession. Prosecutor Thomas Haggstrom demanded a "palpable" jail sentence for Mr Chatty for the weapons offence.
"Chatty has admitted to these serious crimes because the weapons were in his possession under circumstances making it possible to assume they were going to be used in criminal activities," Mr Haggstrom told the court.
But Mr Chatty's lawyer Mr Nils Uggla said there was no evidence the guns had been used in any crimes or that there were plans to do so.