'Hijacker' gets 50 days for weapons offences
The Swede arrested on suspicion he was about to hijack a London bound airliner was today jailed for four months for weapons violations.
Kerim Chatty said he had not intentionally taken a gun to a Swedish regional airport for a Ryanair flight to Stansted.
The district court in Vaesteraas said Chatty’s explanation that he had forgotten the gun was in his carry-on luggage could not be dismissed.
The 29-year-old was arrested in August at Vaesteraas airport, about 60 miles west of Stockholm, after security officials found a 6.35 millimetre pistol in his hand luggage.
Prosecutor Thomas Haeggstroem dropped hijacking charges because of a lack of evidence.
Chatty, who has previous assault and weapons convictions, told investigators he found the gun in a borrowed car a few weeks before his arrest. He said he put it in his bag and forgot about it when he left for the airport to fly to an Islamic conference in Birmingham.
He was also convicted on a second weapons violation involving a gun unrelated to the airport incident. Chatty had no permit for either gun.
His actual prison sentence will be 50 days because prisoners in Sweden only serve two thirds of the full sentence and Chatty already spent 30 days in jail during the investigation, said his lawyer, Nils Uggla.
