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CRIME

11 held after suspected biker gang shootout wounds 8 in Sweden

Eleven men were being held on Monday morning after at least eight people were injured in a shooting in Mölnlycke.

11 held after suspected biker gang shootout wounds 8 in Sweden
Police at the scene of the shooting. Photo: Adam Ihse/TT

Several of the people injured are said to be part of motorcycle gang Hells Angels, reports Swedish news agency TT, although the prosecutor declined to confirm which groups were involved.

“The incident appears to have been sparked by a conflict, which either arose during the course of the evening or existed previously, between two different groups – one with links to motorcycle gangs and the other with local connections,” Sweden's prosecution authority said in a statement.

Seven people were taken to hospital in Gothenburg after the shootout on Saturday evening.

Some had gunshot wounds while others had been stabbed or assaulted. By Sunday evening one had been able to leave hospital, five were in stable condition and a seventh remained seriously injured. An eighth person believed to be linked to the incident sought care at a hospital in Skaraborg, writes TT.

The prosecutor has until Wednesday to decide whether to ask court to have the 11 men remanded in custody. They are aged between 25 and 50 and suspected on reasonable grounds of attempted murder and aggravated assault. Thirteen people were initially held. Of those, one had not yet been questioned by Sunday evening and another has been released.

Motorcycle gangs Hells Angels and Bandidos were involved in several violent conflicts in the 1990s, but since then such incidents have been less common in Sweden.

A forensic examination of the scene of the shooting, which took place at a party venue according to local media, was still ongoing on Sunday evening. The area, around 500 metres from the bus and railway station in Mölnlycke and home to a number of small businesses, was cordoned off.

Mölnlycke is located a couple of kilometres south-east of Gothenburg in western Sweden.

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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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