A ROYAL Navy sailor has been released after his arrest on suspicion of murder after a shipmate was found dead on a night out on shore leave in Stockholm.
The pair were on a three-week training exercise on amphibious warship HMS Albion when they went out on the town in the Swedish capital.
They ended up partying in a flat with three local men in the north western suburb of Solna, five miles from the centre of Stockholm.
The alarm was raised after one of the Brits, aged 25, was found dead in the bathroom at the property.
Police arrested all four of the other men present, including the dead man’s crewmate, pending a probe into the cause of death in the early hours of Sunday.
But sources in Stockholm told The Sun preliminary inquiries the death may have been “drink-induced” and there were no suspicious circumstances.
The four arrested men were all freed yesterday and the British Royal Navy sailor was allowed to rejoin HMS Albion before it set sail for Estonia.
Mystery surrounds the exact cause of the death after a post-mortem examination and toxicology tests were carried out.
But the four arrested men were released ahead of a planned court appearance on Wednesday and no further action will be taken against them.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence and Swedish authorities declined to give details yesterday and have declined to identify the dead sailor.
Swedish prosecutor Liselotte Nilsson confirmed suspicions of foul play were “not that strong” and that it had been decided to release the suspects.
A Royal Navy spokesman said: “We are aware of an incident in Stockholm and we are assisting local authorities in their enquiries. It would be inappropriate to comment further”.
The three-week exercise involved more than 26,000 personnel from the Swedish Army, Swedish Navy, Swedish Air Force, Home Guard and servicemen from 14 other countries.
HMS Albion – one of the Royal Navy’s two amphibious assault ships – arrived in Sweden fresh from training drills known as Joint Viking 23 in Norway in March.
The purpose of the Aurora 23 training exercise was to increase the ability to deal with an armed attack on Sweden.
But the British warship was due to leave Swedish waters for Estonia today – leaving behind the unidentified crew member who remains in Swedish police custody.
The Swedish Armed Forces said that Aurora 23 was the largest national exercise of its kind in more than 30 years.
The RAF and British Army were also involved in the drills.
Nick Parker
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