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CRIME

Far-right editor’s offer to pay travel costs to ‘crime-ridden Malmö’ backfires as dozens accept

An offer from the editor of a far-right website to pay travel costs and accommodation for any journalist willing to stay in "crime-ridden migrant suburbs" of Malmö appears to have backfired, after dozens of people accepted his pledge on Twitter.

Published: 21 February 2017 09:10 CET
Far-right editor's offer to pay travel costs to 'crime-ridden Malmö' backfires as dozens accept
A general view of the Malmö skyline. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Paul Joseph Watson made the offer on Wednesday, in response to criticism of US President Donald Trump for making false claims about crime in Sweden.

Watson's pledge has since been met with a wave of replies from people willing to make the trip, including comedian Al Murray, broadcaster Matthew Sweet, and Vanity Fair's Kurt Eichenwald.

“Can I bring my wife too? I'm excited!” Eichenwald asked eagerly in response:

Malmö’s deputy mayor Nils Karlsson even responded, saying he would be happy to meet any journalists sent to the city.

Watson has since donated $2,000 to one journalist, US-based Tim Pool, who is crowd-funding an investigative trip to Sweden. The rest of the willing travellers seem destined to be disappointed, however.

The rush to grab a paid trip to Malmö is one of the more light-hearted consequences of the spotlight being thrust on Sweden this week in the wake of US President Trump's bizarre comments last Saturday, which implied a non-existent serious incident had taken place in the country the day before.

Trump later clarified by saying that his statement was in reference to a story on Fox News. The story, an interview with filmmaker Ami Horowitz claiming there had been a “surge in both gun violence and rape in Sweden since it began its open door policy,” has since been derided for its factual inaccuracies, and the police officers interviewed for it claim their quotes were taken out of context.

Horowitz denies that their answers were manipulated however, telling Fox News on Monday:

“I’ve never had a subject claim, and certainly not prove, that I ever misled them or ever doctored the footage. It’s never happened before. So my record stands for itself, and what you saw on that video clear as day stands for itself.”

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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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