A 40-year-old woman with Swedish citizenship has been arrested at London Gatwick airport, accused of committing offences related to terrorism.
The woman, whose identity has so far not been revealed, was taken into custody on Thursday afternoon at around 2 p.m. after arriving at the London airport on a flight that originated in Italy, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
The suspect is believed to have either been involved in the preparation, incitement or commission of a terroristic act, but so far details on the arrest have been sparse.
The Swedish security police Säpo told SVT they could not confirm the details on the arrest, with Säpo’s Press Manager Karl Melin stating: “We know the information that is present in the media, but otherwise it is a matter that the British are responsible for.”
According to Sky News, the woman was arrested under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 by the South East Counter Terrorism unit, and is believed to be linked to the Islamic State terror group.
Earlier this year, the Swedish National Center for Terror Threat Assessment (NCT) reiterated that radical Islamic terrorism was still the number one threat to Swedish state security, despite the losses inflicted on the Islamic State terror group in the Middle East.
Swedish researcher Peder Hyllengren of the Swedish Defence College has also claimed that the country has become a hub for international Islamic extremism, and that hundreds of Swedish extremists maintain a large network of jihadist contacts.
According to Hyllengren, Sweden has emerged as a base for jihadism because political correctness has led to inaction on dealing with the issue.
“You risk being identified as racist in a way that you did not see in other European countries. There, this question was as uncontroversial as the importance of combating Nazism and right-wing extremism. But in Sweden, it took a long time before we could discuss jihadism in the same way that we discussed Nazism,” he said.