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Security Service head named new Swedish police chief

The head of Sweden's Security Service Säpo will leave his role to become the new chief of the Swedish police.

Published: 1 February 2018 13:04 CET
Security Service head named new Swedish police chief
Anders Thornberg (right) and Sweden's justice minister Morgan Johansson. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT

On Thursday Justice Minister Morgan Johansson announced that Anders Thornberg will replace Dan Eliasson from February 15th, after the latter resigned to lead disaster preparedness agency MSB.

Eliasson had faced regular criticism since he was appointed as head of police in 2014.

READ ALSO: Swedish police chief Dan Eliasson resigns

The Swedish police have been under increased pressure in recent years as stretched resources and limited officer numbers make their work increasingly difficult, but Thornberg said he is ready for the challenge.

“I've been a police for 37 years and defended Swedish integrity. I'm humble about the task and know it's a challenge,” he told the media at a press conference called to make the announcement.

Briefly outlining his vision for the organization, Thornberg said he wanted the police to do more preventative work:

“I see a police which moves its position against crime through increased cooperation, nationally and internationally.”

The announcement was welcomed by unions and officers.

“Anders Thornberg has extensive knowledge of police work and can motivate and engage employees. He’s the unifying force the Swedish police needs,” Swedish Police Union chairwoman Lena Nitz said in a statement.

“He's a police at heart, has been out in the field and knows what the police face every day. I think it’s an important pillar for being able to take the right decisions and being able to motive and engage the police force.”

READ ALSO: Working on the front line in Stockholm's vulnerable suburbs

“Anders Thornberg. Welcome. There's work to do, but it feels confidence building and hopeful. From difficulties to success. Also found out that he's an old Södermalm cop. The pieces are falling in place,” the YB Södermalm account, run by officers in the south of Stockholm wrote on Twitter.

Thornberg took over as head of Säpo in 2012, and had worked at the organization since 1986. Before then he was a patrol officer in Södermalm after training in Stockholm.

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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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