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CRIME

Boy convicted for killing caregiver

The 15-year-old boy who in May stabbed a female caregiver to death at the Tunagården treatment centre outside of Malmö was sentenced to institutional psychiatric care on Monday.

Boy convicted for killing caregiver

He had admitted to the killing at the start of the day’s proceedings.

The boy was convicted for murder and sentenced to institutional psychiatric care with special provisions preventing doctors from authorizing his release, according to the Malmö District Court following the trial.

“It was a highly anticipated result and in my eyes the most appropriate for my client,” said defence attorney Anders Elison.

The boy has also been ordered to pay 300,000 kronor ($50,000) to the relatives of the deceased caregiver.

Earlier, Elison had criticized the treatment centre where the incident took place.

“There was no need for this to have happened,” he said.

The stabbing took place on May 11th of this year when most of the other boys at the treatment centre were away on an excursion.

During an evening meal, the boy said he wanted to show something to the caregiver and asked her to follow him to a lecture hall. A short time later one of her colleagues found the woman lifeless.

Shortly after the 15-year-old’s murder trial began on Monday, the boy chose to confess to the killing.

He had previously admitted that he held the knife but had denied committing the murder.

Taking the boy’s age into consideration, the district court in Malmö chose to hold the remainder of the day’s proceedings behind closed doors.

Elison criticized the fact that the 15-year-old was able to neglect his medication and that he had the ability to arm himself with a kitchen knife while staying at Tungården.

“I don’t want to anticipate the internal investigation which is under way, but I believe that the treatment centre must have made an error in its procedures,” he said to TT during a break in the trial.

“He was driven by an inner compulsion – he wanted to kill a woman. That it was just this person was a total coincidence, but there was clearly an intent to kill someone. That is also why we choose to admit to the murder conviction,” said Elison.

Earlier psychiatric evaluations have shown that the boy suffers from serious psychic problems and that he is in need of care.

The boy was admitted to the treatment centre after having committed sexual assaults. He suffered from compulsive thoughts and took medicine to counteract the condition.

According to statements made by the 15-year-old to police during questioning, when he neglected to take his medication, his compulsive thoughts grew so strong that he felt forced to kill the 44-year-old female caregiver.

CRIME

Top-ranking Syrian military official to face trial in Sweden

The highest-ranking Syrian military official ever to be tried in Europe was set to face court in Sweden on Monday.

Top-ranking Syrian military official to face trial in Sweden

Sixty-five-year-old former Syrian brigadier general Mohammed Hamo, who lives in Sweden, stands accused of “aiding and abetting” war crimes during Syria’s civil war, which can carry a sentence of life in jail.

The war in Syria between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and armed opposition groups, including the Islamic State, erupted after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.

It has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged the country’s economy and infrastructure.

According to the charge sheet, Hamo contributed – through “advice and action” – to the Syrian army’s warfare, “which systematically involved indiscriminate attacks on several towns or places in the area in and around the towns of Hama and Homs”.

The charges concern the period of January 1st to July 20th, 2012 and the trial is expected to last until late May.

Prosecutors say that the Syrian army’s “warfare has included widespread air and ground attacks by unknown perpetrators within the Syrian army”.

The prosecution argues that strikes were carried out without distinction – as required by international law – between civilian and military targets.

In his role as a brigadier general and head of an armament division, he allegedly helped with the coordination and supply of arms to units, enabling the carrying out of orders on an “operational level”.

Hamo’s lawyer, Mari Kilman, told AFP that her client denied committing a crime but said she did not wish to comment further ahead of the trial.

Several plaintiffs are due to testify at the trial, including Syrians from the cities in question and a British photographer who was injured during one of the strikes.

‘Complete impunity’

“The attacks in and around Homs and Hama in 2012 resulted in widespread civilian harm and an immense destruction of civilian properties,” Aida Samani, senior legal advisor at rights group Civil Rights Defenders, told AFP.

“The same conduct has been repeated systematically by the Syrian army in other cities across Syria with complete impunity,” she continued.

This trial will be the first in Europe “to address these types of indiscriminate attacks by the Syrian army”, according to Samani, who added that it “will be the first opportunity for victims of the attacks to have their voices heard in an independent court”.

Hamo is the highest-ranking military official to actually go on trial in Europe, but other European countries have also tried to bring charges against even more senior members.

In March, Swiss prosecutors charged Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of president Bashar al-Assad, with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

However, it remains unlikely Rifaat al-Assad – who recently returned to Syria after 37 years in exile – will show up in person for the trial, for which a date has yet to be set.

Swiss law allows for trials in absentia under certain conditions.

Last November, France issued an international arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad himself, who stands accused of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes over chemical attacks in 2013.

Three other international warrants were also issued for the arrests of Bashar al-Assad’s brother Maher, the de-facto chief of the Fourth Division – an elite military unit of the Syrian army – and two generals.

In January of 2022, a German court sentenced former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan to life in jail for crimes against humanity in the first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria, which was hailed by victims as a victory for justice.

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