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CRIME

Convicted killer turns to ombudsman over phone restrictions

A man convicted of killing two young girls has turned to Sweden’s Ombudsman of Justice to appeal restrictions put in place after he sent letters to the family of one of his victims.

Convicted killer turns to ombudsman over phone restrictions
Photo: Johan Nilsson/Scanpix

Ulf Olsson was convicted for the murders of 10-year-old Helén Nilsson and Jannicka Ekbladh in the southern Swedish town of Hörby in 1989.

He recently wrote two letters to his Nilsson’s family after her mother, in connection with the murder of Engla Juncosa Höglund, told the media how important Olsson’s trial was for helping her move forward with her life.

The letters led to telephone use restrictions for Olsson from doctors at the forensic psychiatric care facility in Sundsvall in northern Sweden where he is receiving care, reports the Skånska Dagbladet newspaper.

Now Olsson wants the matter to be reviewed by the Ombudsman of Justice (JO).

The motivation behind Olsson’s letter was that his resentment that Nilsson’s family called him a murderer.

“I was sentenced despite my denials, without technical evidence related to the crime of kidnapping and murder,” Olsson wrote in his complaint to the ombudsman.

Olsson decided to seek redress with the ombudsman after an attempt to appeal the doctors’ restrictions with prosecutors in Sundsvall proved unsuccessful.

“My point is that the prosecutor didn’t make an objective decision and that he, under the subjective influence of the character of the crimes for which I’ve been committed, chose to regard the doctors’ treatment of me as lawful,” writes Olsson.

He also explains that he wants the ombudsman to clarify which impartial and objective legal reasons the prosecutor used to back up his decision not to overturn the telephone restrictions.

Olsson was sentenced to court-ordered psychiatric care with special release conditions for the sexual murders Nilsson and Ekbladh. While the murders were committed in 1989, Olsson only began serving his sentence in 2005, following an affirming judgment by a court of appeals.

He has previously turned to the country administrative court to complain about the conditions at the psychiatric clinic at which he is being held.

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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