Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

German man admits to killing Swede

A 26-year-old German man has confessed to the murder of a 64-year old Swede found dead in his apartment in a village near Stuttgart on Wednesday.

Published: 18 April 2008 16:05 CEST

The Swede was beaten to death with a heavy object.

German police said the 26-year-old had not revealed his motives.

“He confessed under interrogation and told us things that only the murderer could know,” police spokesman Nikolaus Brenner told news agency TT.

Police were able to confirm that the two men knew each other.

The victim was found on Wednesday afternoon after his landlady, who lives in the same building, called the police to say she had not seen the Swede for several days and his post box had not been emptied.

The 64-year-old had lived in Germany for over twenty years. He spent the last four years of his life in the small town where he was murdered, 50 kilometres north of Stuttgart.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS

Url copied to clipboard!