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CRIME

Swedish youth faces trial for Columbine homage attack plot

A Swedish youth faces trial for allegedly plotting an attack at his old high school on the 20th anniversary of the Columbine massacre in the United States, a leading daily reported Monday.

Published: 24 December 2019 10:00 CET
Swedish youth faces trial for Columbine homage attack plot
Photo: Depositphotos

The 21-year-old was arrested by chance two weeks before April 20, exactly 20 years after two high schoolers killed 12 classmates and a teacher in the small Colorado town.

Police arrested the suspect after a neighbour alerted them over a drunken brawl at his home during which he was waving a machete at a homeless man.

Police found fake firearms as well as explosives and cans of petrol that the suspect allegedly planned to use to set fire to the school library, Dagens Nyheter reported.

The young man, who faces a hefty prison term, admits that he planned an attack but denies having the intention to kill, his lawyer Jan Kryo said told the paper.

However, a diary entry states: “I have always had this desire to kill, I don't know why… I don't want to seem crazy, but I may be a reincarnation of Eric Harris” — one of the two Columbine killers.

Harris, who was 18, and his 17-year-old accomplice Dylan Klebold turned their weapons on themselves after the bloodbath, then the worst school shooting in US history.

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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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