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CRIME

Swedish police search for escaped murder suspect

A murder suspect escaped from the custody of the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvarden) on Thursday, setting off a large-scale police action.

Published: 12 July 2018 18:24 CEST
Swedish police search for escaped murder suspect
Police were searching for the man with dogs and helicopters. Photo: Jeppe Gustafsson/TT
The suspect, a 25-year-old male, was being transported from a psychiatric detention centre in Gotherburg to Salberga Prison in Sala when he escaped from a stopped transport vehicle at around 11:30am between Finnerödja and Laxå.
 
“The car was stopped when it happened. Why the car had stopped is unknown to us at this time,” Claes Nöjd of the Prison and Probation Service said. 
 
According to police, there was no violent struggle involved in the escape. The suspect, reportedly barefoot and still in handcuffs, ran into a heavily wooded area. 
 
As of 6pm, the murder suspect was still on the loose and being sought by police. 
 
“We have a large number of police patrols, dogs and helicopters looking for him,” Christina Hallin of the Bergslagen Police Region said. 
 
Speaking to Expressen, Hallin warned that the man “may be desperate and behave aggressively”.  
 
The 25-year-old was arrested in April for a stabbing death in the Stockholm area.  

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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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