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CRIME

Two arrested in connection with murder of Malmö teen

Two men have been arrested suspected of being complicit in the murder of a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed in Malmö last January.

Published: 4 April 2017 07:58 CEST
Two arrested in connection with murder of Malmö teen
Floral tributes at the bus stop where 16-year-old Ahmed Obaid was shot and killed last January. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The same two men had been arrested last week suspected of being involved in a different murder of a 23-year-old man in the same city, newspaper Sydsvenskan reports.

It had previously been speculated that there is a link between the two murders. The 23-year-old killed last week is reportedly a witness in the investigation of the shooting of the 16-year-old, arriving at the scene shortly after he was shot and taking a photograph which he then uploaded to social media. The 23-year-old explained to police that he did so in order to prove that he was there to help, according to the newspaper.

The fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ahmed Obaid at a bus stop in Malmö’s Rosengård district sent shockwaves through the local community, leading to hundreds of friends, families and neighbours taking part in a defiant demonstration in his memory. No one has been arrested for carrying out the murder.

READ ALSO: Hundreds mourn teen murdered in Rosengård

Last Thursday meanwhile, seven men were arrested in connection with the murder of a 23-year-old on the city’s Ramels väg road. Of the seven, one man has been remanded in custody on reasonable suspicion of murder, and two other men remanded suspected of complicity in the murder.

The other four were formally released on Monday while still under suspicion, but two of the released men were subsequently arrested and detained once more soon after – this time for complicity in the murder of 16-year-old Obaid, Sydsvenskan reports.

The chief prosecutor would not confirm whether the murders are linked and if it is the same two people arrested for the two murders.

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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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