Expressen 16 Sep 2018

Stefan is the father of Ebba Åkerlund a victim of a terrorist attack by Islamist Rakhmat Akilov from Uzbekistan resulting in death of five people. He wrote this article in Expressen, a Swedish newspaper.

"The responsible politicians haven't done anything to investigate how the terrorist attack could happen. I have decided to use my sorrow, my bitterness and my anger to try to make Sweden a little better. A headless migration policy and authorities that did not do their job led to the murder of my daughter and that my own life was ruined forever. I want to see a new accident commission whose first case is the terror attack on Drottninggatan

On April 7, 2017, my eleven-year-old daughter Ebba and four more died in the terrorist attacks in central Stockholm. It did not have to happen. If the Swedish state - and in the long run the country's political leadership over the past decades - had acted as we are entitled to demand of a modern, well-organized and resourceful society, then Rakhmat Akilov would never have been near Drottninggatan on that day. He had not even been in Sweden.

We all probably agree that it is impossible for a state to ensure that no terrorist acts occur in its territory. There is also a consensus that a state can act so that the risk of such crimes increases or decreases. Then the question arises: what is a reasonable level of terror in a society? When did the state take sufficient steps to minimize the risk of terrorist acts without depriving unreasonable resources or renouncing citizens' rights and freedoms.

Akilov could stay undisturbed in Sweden

Akilov received his expulsion decision half a year before he conducted his assassination, a deed that took place almost three months after he should already have left the country. But nobody tried to find him, no one was investigating if he was at his home address. The fact that the Migration Board and the Police did not do their job to deport a person who was here illegally resulted in my daughter losing her life and forever destroying my own life. Other families of the murdered ones have equally experienced similar losses.

Rakhmat Akilov is sentenced to life imprisonment and expulsion.

Ebba's killer came to Sweden because of a headless asylum and migration policy that is unprecedented in Europe, indeed in the whole world. And he remained in Sweden because of a dysfunctional state administration, partly as a result of the overload that the policy had caused. It is the established parties in the the Swedish Parliament - both the Alliance and the Red-Green - who are in charge of that policy. It is also those who bear the responsibility that all those who questioned that policy - even in their own way - were branded [racists, fascists etc.].

The decision makers are afraid

But it does not end there. After the deception, these politicians have not done anything to investigate how it could happen. How society could have acted differently to prevent the deed. Or if there are lessons to draw that can reduce the risk of something happening again. Is it not strange that in a country that has a special authority - the National Accident Investigation Board - which investigates incidents even when two aircraft almost collide with each other, does not also thoroughly investigate the reasons behind the country's biggest terrorist attack to date, where five people were murdered? Could the reason be that the decision-makers are simply too worried to be identified in such an investigation to want to even start one?

Sweden, as I want it to be, a safe and functioning society and an example in the rest of the world, apparently no longer exists. However, I have decided to try to make Sweden a bit better, using my grief, my bitterness and anger into something constructive.

Those responsible must be investigated

I would therefore like to, together with business and civil society, initiate a new permanent accident commission which will be disconnected from the state. Its purpose is to improve the efficiency of the Swedish state in maintaining its policy against violence. The aim of the Commission's work is that fewer people in Sweden should be injured or killed due to shortcomings in the execution of the state's original and central task. It should be done in a manner customary to an accident commission. When extensive personal injury through criminal activity occurs because the state may have failed its task, the Commission will gather facts, analyze causes for lack of action, store and disseminate these facts, and propose actions based on analyzes that the Commission considers would reduce the risk of similar crimes in the future.

The task includes assessing the responsibility of authorities and individual executives for the occurrence and propose appropriate consequences for those responsible. The Hearing Commission's first case should be the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan 2017."

Stefan, father of Ebba Åkerlund