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THOMAS QUICK

CRIME

Ex-serial killer to stay behind bars: council

Sture Bergwall, known as self-confessed serial killer Thomas Quick who retracted all his confessions, will not be let out of psychiatric care. Bergwall dubbed the decision "Soviet" in its "disregard for justice".

Ex-serial killer to stay behind bars: council

TV4 news reported on Thursday that the National Health and Welfare Board’s legal council (Socialstyrelsens rättsliga råd) ruled it was too early to make a judgment about whether Bergvall poses any threat to society if let out of Säter psychiatric hospital in central Sweden.

The eighth and final murder charge against Bergwall was discarded on July 31st, the final nail in the coffin of an extensive justice system scandal in which he confessed to a string of killings that took place between 1994 and 2001. He was convicted of eight murders, but has now been cleared of all charges.

Bergwall, who blogs from inside Säter, expressed his regret over Thursday’s verdict and accused the welfare board of not accessing enough information about his case before making its ruling.

“(The council) had the possibility of asking for more information to make its decision, but chose not to,” Bergwall blogged. “They then lay bare a total lack of respect for an individual person and for defending justice (rättssäkerhet).”

Bergwall went on to accuse the council of having a “Soviet attitude” to having safe and accountable justice system.

“It’s creepy,” Bergwall wrote.

“The justice system has, through discarding the verdicts (against me), shown that it can deal with this huge miscarriage of justice,” he continued.

“Correctional services’ psychiatric care and now the legal council do not have the capacity to do the same. It’s horrifying.”

TT/The Local/Ann Törnkvist

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POLITICS

Sweden Democrat justice committee chair steps down over hate crime suspicion

The Sweden Democrat head of parliament’s justice policy committee, Richard Jomshof, has stepped down pending an investigation into hate crimes.

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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