Moroccan Abderrahman Mechkah confessed to manslaughter but did not admit a terrorist motive
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A teenage Moroccan asylum seeker appeared in a Finnish court via video link on Tuesday and admitted killing two women and injuring eight other people in a knife attack that is being treated as terrorism.
Abderrahman Mechkah confessed to manslaughter in the closed-door hearing in Turku, the city on Finland’s southwest coast where the frenzied attack took place.
But the 18-year-old did not admit any terrorist motive, his lawyer Kaarle Gummerus said.
Mechkah was seen via video-link in his hospital bed, his head covered with a blanket. He was shot in the leg by police following the stabbings on Friday.
Moroccan asylum seeker, 18, admits killing two women in frenzied Finland knife attack but denies being a terrorist https://t.co/2Sb1YLdW9o pic.twitter.com/s0QUbI7iDv
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) 22 août 2017
Authorities say he appeared to target women in the rampage.
Mechkah, whose application for asylum had been rejected, had been living in an immigrant reception centre in Turku since coming to Finland in spring 2016.
He was in the process of appealing the rejection.
Mechkah and three other Moroccan men, who deny any wrongdoing, were remanded in custody. A fifth Moroccan has been released.
with Reuters