A teenage Moroccan asylum seeker has admitted killing two people and wounding eight in what is believed to be Finland’s first ever terror attack.
In a closed-door court hearing, 18-year-old Abderrahman Mechkah confessed to carrying out Friday’s attack but denied he had a terrorist motive, lawyer Kaarle Gummerus said.
It emerged yesterday that the Finnish intelligence service had received a tip-off earlier this year about Mechkah.
Abderrahman Mechkah (pictured during the hearing at his hospital bed) confessed to carrying out Friday’s attack but denied he had a terrorist motive
Killer: Abderrahman Mechkah, an 18-year-old asylum seeker from Morocco, admitted manslaughter but denied being an extremist
He appeared via video link at a court in Turku, where the horrific stabbing frenzy happened on Friday
‘(My client) admits manslaughter and injuries. But based on what the investigator has presented thus far, the crime was not necessarily with terrorist intent,’ Gummerus told Reuters.
He appeared via video link at a court in Turku, where the horrific stabbing frenzy happened on Friday.
The district court on today placed him in custody.
In a Twitter post the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said: ‘The offender in Turku incident is suspected on probable cause of murders and attempted murders with terrorist intent and placed in detention.’
Police have said he targeted women in the Friday afternoon attack at a market square in the southwestern port city of Turku. Two women were killed and six women and two men were injured.
Two women were killed and six people were injured in the knife attack on Friday in Turku
Friday’s attack is being investigated as Finland’s first ever terror attack, but the killer denies being a terrorist
‘According to the tip-off, the suspect seemed radicalised and was interested in extreme thinking,’ a Finnish intelligence statement said, while adding there was no information to suggest a threat of an attack.
The service said Mechkah was not among the around 350 people it was monitoring in its terrorism prevention programme.
Mechkah, who was shot in the thigh by police minutes after the attack, appeared before the Turku court on Tuesday via video link from hospital.
Most of the hearing was held behind closed doors, but press photos taken at the beginning showed the suspect lying in his hospital bed, his head propped up on a pillow and his face shielded by a white sheet.
The motive for the attack is unclear, but the country’s intelligence agency SUPO said Monday that he might have been radicalised.
Mohamed Bakier, who is suspected of having links to the attack on Friday, covered his face as he appeared in court today
Also covering his face was alleged accomplice Llyas Berrouh, who appeared in court in Turku today
Three other Moroccan men detained over possible links to the attack are due in court today. A fifth Moroccan who had also been under arrest was released, the court said.
The investigation is the first into suspected terrorism-related crimes in Finland’s history.
Gummerus said it was ‘impossible to take a final stance at the moment’ on the issue of whether the stabbings were terrorism-related.
Investigators have not made clear what role the three other Moroccans, who deny involvement in the attack, are suspected of playing.
Police said they had issued an international arrest warrant for a fifth Moroccan national.