The man who killed two Swedish nationals in Brussels on Monday had been convicted in Sweden in 2012 on drug charges, SVT Nyheter, a news programme on Sweden’s public broadcaster, reported on Tuesday.
Abdesalem Lassoued and two others were arrested in Malmö in September 2012 for alleged drug trafficking. The Tunisian was then sentenced later that year to two years and two months in prison for possession of 100 grammes of cocaine, and had to leave the country; 38,000 Swedish kronor (over €3,300) was also seized.
The TV programme reported that it was able to speak to someone who knew Lassoued when he was living in Sweden. The witness described him as deeply religious, but certainly not radicalised.
Earlier in the day, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson had indicated that the man had lived in Sweden. It later emerged that he had been incarcerated between 2012 and 2014 for acts whose nature, however, have not been specified.
In November 2019, he applied for asylum in Belgium, but his application was rejected and he subsequently disappeared from the radar.
