Two Russian citizens have been arrested in Sweden suspected of a hammer attack last month on a blogger critical of Chechen strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, media reported Saturday.
A district court in the central Swedish town of Gavle on Friday ordered a Russian woman in her thirties held in custody, suspected of being an accessory to the attempted murder of Tumso Abdurakhmanov on February 26.
A 29-year-old Russian man was previously detained by the court for attempted murder.
After the alleged attack, Abdurakhmanov posted a video showing the assailant, whom he had apparently overpowered, covered in blood. He also brandished the hammer that he said the assailant wanted to kill him with.
The Chechen blogger claimed the man was sent by Russia to kill him.
"We're working on trying to establish the motive... and of course we'll take into consideration the remarks made by the plaintiff," prosecutor Therese Jansson told daily Svenska Dagbladet.
Abdurakhmanov, 34, has lived in exile since 2015 after receiving what he describes as threats to his life from Chechnya.
According to Swedish daily Dagens Nyhether, he has been living in hiding in Sweden since 2019, after being denied asylum in Poland.
His YouTube video blog critical of Kadyrov has some 75,000 subscribers.
The attack comes amid growing concern over the security of Chechen dissidents living in Europe and elsewhere after repeated reports of attacks.
Initial suspicions of attempted murder of the assailant by Abdurakhmanov have been dropped, the prosecutor said.
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