Two young men who are accused of setting fire to a disused mink farm are believed to be connected to terrorist groups, according to the Swedish security police and the FBI.
The two men, aged 18 and 20 at the time, travelled from Stockholm to Sölvesborg on October 2019 intending to release the minks at the farm after discussing their plans on an online forum.
The pair set up a campsite near the mink farm and later admitted that when they found there were no mink there, they decided to set the farm on fire instead, broadcaster SVT reports.
Police located the men shortly after the fire was reported. Both have been subject to investigation by the Swedish security police Sapo and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with one of the men linked to other terror investigations. However, no specific groups were mentioned by the broadcaster.
During their interrogations, both men initially denied any involvement in the fire, but after being shown photographic evidence and internet chat logs, they eventually confessed, with the 20-year-old stating he hated the mink fur industry.
Prosecutors also allege that the pair plotted the death of a convicted sex offender and a Swedish judge as the men felt that the judge had given the sex offender too light of a sentence. They also allegedly chatted about bombing an abortion clinic in Stockholm.
The trial will begin on Friday and is expected to be concluded by Tuesday. While both confessed to vandalism, they have denied the arson charges.
Over the last several months, the mink industry was the subject of headlines as workers on mink farms began testing positive for the Chinese coronavirus, and some suspected that they had possibly been infected by minks carrying the virus.
In response to the possible link between coronavirus and mink, Denmark culled as many as 17 million of them after outbreaks on over 200 farms.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.