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THOMAS QUICK

CRIME

Sweden drops final ‘serial killer’ murder charge

Swedish prosecutors have discarded the eighth and final murder charge against the self-confessed serial killer and cannibal Thomas Quick, who in 2008 recanted his alleged participation in a series of brutal killings.

Published: 31 July 2013 10:39 CEST
Sweden drops final 'serial killer' murder charge

The final murder charge concerned the 1976 disappearance of Charles Zelmanovits. Quick, who now goes by the name Sture Bergwall, confessed to the murder along with seven other suspicious deaths.

“The guilty verdict was based on the confession of Bergwall and him wanted to be convicted,” chief prosecutor Håkan Nyman told the TT news agency on Wednesday as news of the discarded charge broke.

There was no forensic evidence to tie Bergwall to 15-year-old Zelmanovits’ death, but he was convicted of murder in 1994. Zelmanovits’ remains were not found until 1993, with Bergwall confessing to the crime the following spring.

FOR MORE BACKGROUND: The brutal confessions of a ‘serial killer’ that injured Sweden’s justice system

The prosecutor who demanded that Sweden’s justice system revisit the case has long been convinced that the young boy died of exposure.

“He was drunk, he got lost, and he froze to death. It was more or less completely open terrain and it started to snow,” Bengt Landahl told TT earlier this year. “It was -10C and he was only wearing low shoes, a short jacket, and no hat.”

Read what Sturewall wrote on his blog after the verdict

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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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