Stockholm (Somalia Today) — Sweden has charged a 23-year-old Swedish-Syrian man over a Somalia travel bid to join the Islamic State (IS) group, prosecutors said on Thursday.
He is accused of trying twice to travel to Somalia, sending money in cryptocurrencies to IS, and receiving bomb-making instructions for use in terrorist acts.
Prosecutors say the man lives in southern Sweden and faces several terrorist charges, including participation in a terrorist organisation, financing terrorism, and attempted financing of terrorism.
He denies wrongdoing, according to Swedish media reports.
Two aborted trips to Somalia
According to the charge sheet, the man first tried to travel to Somalia on September 4, 2023. Prosecutor Carl Mellberg said Ethiopian authorities detained him near the Somali border and then sent him back before he could cross.
On March 18, 2024, he allegedly made a second attempt, this time travelling via Saudi Arabia. Somali authorities arrested him during that trip, and Sweden later brought him back to face charges.
Mellberg told AFP that investigators still do not know exactly what role the man planned to take in Somalia, because he never reached the country.
Even so, he said, prosecutors believe the trips aimed to join IS as an active member rather than as a simple supporter.
The indictment says the man also received instructions on how to manufacture and use explosives “specifically intended for use in terrorist acts”.
Investigators say those instructions form part of the evidence that he prepared to support IS operations.
Crypto transfers under scrutiny
Prosecutors also allege the suspect used cryptocurrencies to send money to IS and tried to send additional funds.
According to Swedish media, the confirmed transfers total just over 8,000 kronor (around $750). They say a further attempt to send nearly 40,000 kronor was blocked.
Mellberg said the size of the payments matters less than the recipient. “In terrorism financing, it is not the amount that decides how serious the crime is, but who receives the money,” he said, according to local reports.
The charges fall under a tougher terrorism law that took effect in Sweden on June 1, 2023.
The law allows prosecutors to target a wide range of actions that “strengthen, promote or support” a terrorist organisation, including travel, fundraising and logistical support.
Prosecutors also accuse the man of being a member of IS, an offence that carries a lengthy prison term under Swedish law.
If the court convicts him on all counts, he could face many years in jail.
Linked to an earlier conviction
The accused is described in the charge sheet as a close friend of a 22-year-old man whom a Swedish court convicted in mid-February for terrorism-related travel and other offences after the pair planned trips to Somalia together.
That friend became the first person in Sweden convicted of participation in a terrorist organisation under the new legislation and received a sentence of three years and three months in prison.
Investigators say the two men coordinated some of their plans and that evidence from the earlier case fed into the current prosecution.
However, the latest indictment focuses on the 23-year-old’s own alleged preparations, travels, and financial activity.
The trial is scheduled to open on December 3, 2025, at the Attunda district court near Stockholm and is expected to last three days.
The court plans to hear from investigators, terrorism experts, and digital forensics specialists who traced the crypto transactions, according to the indictment.
Swedish authorities have stepped up terrorism cases linked to IS and other extremist groups in recent years.
In a separate case, prosecutors this year charged a Syrian-Swedish dual national over an alleged suicide bomb plot at a Stockholm festival, also on behalf of IS.
Small IS branch in Somalia
IS maintains a smaller footprint in Somalia than the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency against the federal government and African Union forces for more than a decade.
However, security analysts say the Islamic State’s Somalia branch, mainly based in the mountains of Puntland, has grown more active and more connected to global networks.
A recent analysis by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point says IS-Somalia, which has only a few hundred fighters, has become an important financial and logistical hub for the wider Islamic State movement. It sends funds and expertise across borders.
U.S.-backed Puntland forces and Somali security units have launched repeated offensives in the Golis Mountains to disrupt the group’s operations.
For Swedish authorities, the latest Sweden Somalia IS terror case highlights the risk that radicalised individuals in Europe may try to link up with militant cells in East Africa.
The security police have warned that travel for terrorism purposes, online propaganda, and small-scale fundraising remain key pathways for IS recruitment.
Sweden’s justice ministry and the man’s defence lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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