Suspect's lawyer denies he planned to hijack or crash plane.(Chicago Tribune)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden_A lawyer for 29-year-old Kerim Chatty, charged with attempting to hijack a commercial flight to Britain, denied Sunday that his client intended to seize control of the plane or crash it into a U.S. embassy in Europe.

The attorney, Nils Uggla, who was allowed to interview his client Sunday said later that "he's of course very upset, because he denies this was a hijacking, or any other kind of terrorist matter. He is very sorry for his family and the passengers who were not allowed to go with the plane to England."

About 20 other Muslims aboard the Ryanair jet were planning to attend an Islamic conference in Birmingham, England. Police spokesman Ulf Palme said the Muslims were taken from the plane and questioned but released around midnight Thursday after police concluded they were not part of a hijacking plot.

It was unclear whether Chatty, a Swedish citizen with a Tunisian father and a Swedish mother who reportedly converted to Islam during a 1997 stint in a Swedish jail, planned to attend the same conference.

Police denied news reports that they had evidence of a plot involving others, or that Chatty, a former student pilot, intended to crash the plane into an American embassy.

"The only suspect is this man who is arrested," said Palme. "The question of the motive is obviously one we are looking at."

Chatty, a recent Muslim convert with a petty criminal record, was arrested at Vasteras airport in central Sweden around four o'clock Thursday afternoon after a scanner detected a handgun in his carry-on bag.