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Man jailed for 18 years after brutal knife killing

A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for murder after a frenzied knife attack at a restaurant in Gothenburg in March.

Published: 13 July 2012 15:13 CEST

The man is reported to be the father of the victim’s ex-girlfriend.

The murder was classified as particularly brutal with the victim subjected to at least 25 knife blows while working at the Black Diamond restaurant in the Hisingen area of the city on March 5th.

According to the police forensic examination the man sustained stabbing injuries to his head, throat, arms and midriff as well as injuries to the ribs, collar bone, heart, lungs, liver and kidneys.

According to the prosecutor the motive for the attack was the 20-year-old victim’s relationship with the 39-year-old man’s 16-year-old daughter.

The accused had previously admitted to delivering two blows but maintained that he had acted in self defence. The court however considered that there was sufficient evidence to indicate that the murder had been planned.

The 20-year-old had previously received several warnings and threats from members of the man’s family regarding the relationship, but elected to ignore them, according to a report in the local Göteborgs Posten daily.

According to the newspaper the man’s daughter is currently in the care of the social services and is being kept at a secret address.

Prosecutor Stina Lundqvist argued that the court should sentence the man to life imprisonment.

The 18 year prison sentence given to the man is the longest fixed term custodial sentence permissible for the crime of murder in Sweden.

Sweden Democrat justice committee chair steps down over hate crime suspicion

Jomshof told news site Kvartal’s podcast that he had been called to questioning on Tuesday next week, where he’s been told he is to be formally informed he is suspected of agitation against an ethnic or national group (hets mot folkggrupp), a hate crime.

Prosecutor Joakim Zander confirmed the news, but declined to comment further.

“I can confirm what Jomshof said. He is to be heard as suspected on reasonable grounds of agitation against an ethnic or national group,” he told the TT newswire.

“Suspected on reasonable grounds” (skäligen misstänkt) is Sweden’s lower degree of suspicion, compared to the stronger “probable cause” (på sannolika skäl misstänkt).

The investigation relates to posts by other accounts which Jomshof republished on the X platform on May 28th.

One depicts a Muslim refugee family who is welcomed in a house which symbolises Europe, only to set the house on fire and exclaim “Islam first”. The other shows a Pakistani refugee who shouts for help and is rescued by a boat which symbolises England. He then attacks the family who helped him with a bat labelled “rape jihad”, according to TT.

Jomshof has stepped down from his position as chair of the justice committee while he’s under investigation.

“I don’t want this to be about my chairmanship of the committee, I don’t want the parties we collaborate with to get these questions again about whether or not they have confidence in me, but I want this to be about the issue at hand,” he said.

“The issue is Islamism, if you may criticise it or not, and that’s about free speech.”

It’s not the first time Jomshof has come under fire for his comments on Islam.

Last year, he called the Prophet Mohammed a “warlord, mass murderer, slave trader and bandit” in another post on X, sparking calls from the opposition for his resignation.

The Social Democrats on Friday urged Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose Moderate-led government relies on the Sweden Democrats’ support, not to let Jomshof return to the post as chair of the justice committee.

“The prime minister is to be the prime minister for the people as a whole,” said Ardalan Shekarabi, the Social Democrat deputy chairman of the justice committee, adding that it was “sad” that Jomshof had ever been elected chairman in the first place.

“When his party supports a person with clear extremist opinions, on this post, there’s no doubt that the cohesion of our society is damaged and that the government parties don’t stand up against hate and agitation,” TT quoted Shekarabi as saying.

Liberal party secretary Jakob Olofsgård, whose party is a member of the government but is seen as the coalition party that’s the furthest from the Sweden Democrats, wrote in a comment to TT: “I can say that I think it is reasonable that Richard Jomshof chooses to quit as chairman of the justice committee pending this process.”

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