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CRIME

Father bites son’s finger off in New Year’s drama

A man in western Sweden has been arrested on suspicion of biting his son's finger off while in Malmö two prisoners managed to escape a correctional facility on an eventful New Year's Eve for the police.

Published: 1 January 2014 10:56 CET
Father bites son's finger off in New Year's drama
Fireworks ring in 2014 at Malmö's Turning Torso. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The authorities had described the countdown to 2014 as initially quiet but as the clocks edged closer towards midnight there were reports of trouble and fires across the country. 

In Kristinehamn on Sweden's west coast a 50-year-old man was arrested following a domestic incident in which his adult son's finger was apparently bitten off.

"It was a fight that took place in the home. I don't know what it is that sparked off this incident," Ronny Brattström of the Värmland police told Aftonbladet.

Officers arrived on the scene at 3:30 in the morning where the father was arrested on suspicion of assault. His adult son was taken to hospital but the extent of his injuries remains unknown.

Down south in Malmö two prisoners broke free from a correctional facility in Fosie. The alarm was raised just after midnight and a police search party was sent out to retrieve the prisoners without success.

Correction facility authorities said that the men were not considered dangerous but described their escape as a "failure."

"This is the first escape in a long time from Fosie," Birgitta Nilsson who works at the facility told Expressen.

It's understood that the men made their escape by smashing a window and police later found a burnt our car at the Öresund Bridge. Both men had previously been convicted for robberies and weren't residents of Skåne with police suggesting they had likely fled to Denmark.

Also in Skåne a man suffered minor injuries after a rocket was set off from a balcony in Helsingborg which started a fire that spread to three other balconies and subsequently destroyed an entire apartment.

In Gothenburg police reported a number of fights and incidents of assault. A man was taken to hospital after being stabbed in the shoulder in the city centre while three knife wielding thieves robbed a corner shop.

"During the night we had a lot of drunkenness, assaults and fights but nothing astounding or some major bodily injuries," Susanne Arvidsson of the Gothenburg police told the TT news agency.

In the capital there were no serious disturbances reported with police saying that it was a relatively normal New Year's Eve.

"99 out of 100 cases are alcohol related," Eva Nilsson of the Stockholm police told TT.  

The Local/pr 

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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.

Published: 13 September 2024 13:33 CEST
Updated: 13 September 2024 14:38 CEST
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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