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SEXUAL

Lewd crank calls lead to arrest of Karlstad man

A 59-year-old man in Karlstad in western Sweden has been arrested on suspicion of molestation and sexual molestation after making more than 300 lewd crank calls to the SOS Alarm emergency calls service.

Published: 8 February 2009 11:23 CET
Lewd crank calls lead to arrest of Karlstad man

Police raided the man’s home on Saturday evening, arrested the 59-year-old and confiscated his telephones.

“We have not yet managed to interview him. So we do not know why he did it,” Thore Persson at Karlstad police said to the news agency TT.

“He has spent two, three days ringing the emergency switchboard and said a load of smutty things down the telephone. The case concerns between 300 and 350 telephone calls.”

The man is now suspected of harassment and sexual molestation.

“The climax came during Friday evening. We then decided to report the man to police. The worst case scenario would be if such a call would block a genuine 112 emergency call. But is also a question of our operators’ work environment,” said Torbjörn Halldin at SOS Alarm in Karlstad.

SYRIA

Swiss woman stands trial for attempting to join Islamic State

A 31-year-old woman from Winterthur who tried to travel to Syria to join Islamic State (IS) is standing trial under Swiss anti-terror laws.

Published: 15 December 2017 10:35 CET
Swiss woman stands trial for attempting to join Islamic State
The federal criminal court in Bellinzona. Photo: Swiss Confederation/OFCL

The alleged ‘jihadi tourist' appeared before Switzerland's federal criminal court in Bellinzona on Friday, the Swiss news agency SDA reported. 

In December 2015, the woman, accompanied by her four-year-old child, attempted to travel to Syria via Greece and Turkey in order to join IS, the authorities allege. 

Her intended destination was Raqqa, which was at the time an IS stronghold in Syria.

The woman was prevented from continuing her journey by the Greek authorities and was arrested at Zurich airport on her return to Switzerland in January 2016. 

The Swiss attorney general's office filed an indictment against the Swiss national for offences under the federal law that bans terror groups including Isis. 

According to the indictment, the woman radicalized herself through internet propaganda after converting to Islam in 2009.

It says the Swiss national believed it was the duty of all Muslims to support IS.

She said she rejected western values.

This is only the second case concerning a so-called ‘jihadi tourist' to go before Switzerland's federal criminal court. 

The first prosecution of its kind took place in 2016, when a 26-year-old man was found guilty of attempting to travel to join Isis and given an 18-month suspended jail sentence.

Islamic State has been banned in Switzerland since 2014.