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CRIME

Pair held in brutal torture case

A 26-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man were remanded in custody on Tuesday for cutting off the ear of a 44-year-old man in addition to subjecting him to other vicious forms of torture.

Published: 1 April 2008 17:43 CEST

The two suspects are being held on probable cause for the attempted murder and kidnapping of a 44-year-old man who was found tortured in a hunting cabin near Hallandsåsen in western Sweden one week ago.

A third person, a 42-year-old man, was released following a custody hearing in Halmstad District Court.

The 44-year-old man was driven away by car the day after Easter.

Following a search, he was found the day after with an ear and several toes cut off. He had also had candle wax poured in one of his eyes and nails pounded into his kneecaps and elbows.

The man was taken directly to hospital. He is known to police, who suspect the matter is related to some sort of reprisal.

The Halland county police are continuing with an investigation.

CRIME

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs using apps to hire ‘child soldiers’

The justice ministers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway are to meet representatives of the tech giants Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, to discuss how to stop their platforms being used by gang criminals in the region.

Published: 20 September 2024 10:31 CEST
Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs using apps to hire 'child soldiers'

Denmark’s justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said in a press release that he hoped to use the meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss how to stop social media and messaging apps being used by gang criminals, who Danish police revealed earlier this year were using them to recruit so-called “child soldiers” to carry out gang killings.  

“We have seen many examples of how the gangs are using social media and encrypted messaging services to plan serious crimes and recruit very young people to do their dirty work,” Hummelgaard said. “My Nordic colleagues and I agree that a common front is needed to get a grip on this problem.”

As well as recruitment, lists have been found spreading on social media detailing the payments on offer for various criminal services.   

Hummelgaard said he would “insist that the tech giants live up to their responsibilities so that their platforms do not act as hotbeds for serious crimes” at the meeting, which will take place at a summit of Nordic justice ministers in Uppsala, Sweden.

In August, Hummelgaard held a meeting in Copenhagen with Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, at which the two agreed to work harder to tackle cross-border organised crime, which has seen a series of Swedish youth arrested in Denmark after being recruited to carry out hits in the country. 

According to a press release from the Swedish justice ministry, the morning will be spent discussing how to combat the criminal economy and particularly organised crime in ports, with a press release from Finland’s justice ministry adding that the discussion would also touch on the “undue influence on judicial authorities” from organised crime groups. 

The day will end with a round table discussion with Ronald S Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, on how anti-Semitism and hate crimes against Jews can be prevented and fought in the Nordic region. 

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