A man accused of gunning down two Swedish football fans in Brussels had served a prison sentence in Sweden between 2012 and 2014, the Swedish Migration Agency said Tuesday.
Agency spokesman Jesper Tengroth declined to elaborate on the crime he was convicted of or how long a sentence he served.
“He served a prison sentence in Sweden during 2012 to 2014,” Tengroth told AFP.
He said the man was transferred from Sweden “to another European country under the Dublin Regulation”, which stipulates that migrants must apply for asylum in the European country where they first arrive.
The man, a suspected Islamist of Tunisian origin living illegally in Belgium, gunned down two Swedes and injured a third on Monday evening on a street, just before the start of a Belgium-Sweden international football match.
The man — identified in media reports as 45-year-old Tunisian migrant Abdesalem Lassoued — was cornered and fatally wounded early on Tuesday, when Belgian police moved to detain him in a cafe.
Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said the dead man had been positively identified as the perpetrator of the murders.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said there was “every indication” it was “a terror attack, targeting Sweden and Swedish citizens, just because they are Swedes,” he said.
