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CRIME

Nazi poison used in ex-lover’s murder bid

A 32-year-old man from northern Sweden charged with trying to kill his ex-girlfriend four times had enough Zyklon B pesticide, once used in Nazi gas chambers, to kill 42,000 people.

Published: 10 July 2009 16:37 CEST
Nazi poison used in ex-lover's murder bid

In addition to being charged with four counts of attempted murder, the man from Luleå has also been charged with drugging and raping his former partner.

“Zyklon B exists to extinguish life,” prosecutor Ulla-Karin Lindström told the Norrländska Socialdemokraten newspaper.

On Thursday, the prosecution presented a comprehensive indictment against the man, who is accused of attempting to murder his 27-year-old former girlfriend with up to three kilogrammes of the poison Zyklon B, the notorious cyanide-based pesticide used in the Holocaust.

The case is unique, as it is the first time in Sweden that someone has been charged with attempted murder using Zyklon B.

Prosecutors allege that the man tried to murder his former partner on four separate occasions.

The first of these attempt took place on December 23rd of last year in a house they shared in a village outside Luleå.

On that occasion, the man allegedly placed a deadly dose of potassium cyanide in his former partner’s food while the two were having dinner together with their two children.

A second attempt occurred on January 3rd this year when man is alleged to have placed a flask containing a deadly dose of potassium cyanide under his ex-partner’s nose and mouth while she was sleeping.

The man’s third attempt, carried out on February 3rd, involved him allegedly placing a deadly dose of Zyklon B in the woman’s car.

Several days after that, the man is alleged to have placed a deadly dose of the the cyanide-based pesticide in his former partner’s stairwell, and to have taken a quantity of the poison into the woman’s house.

Prosecutor Lindström considers that it is just a matter of chance that the woman is still alive.

The accused man has confessed to buying the Zyklon B and admits to having handled the deadly poison.

But he denies that he decided to use the poison with the purpose of murdering his former partner.

“My client has given an explanation of why he bought the poison,” the man’s lawyer, Jan Wennerbrandt, told the newspaper.

During earlier police questioning, the man stated that he was going to use the Zyklon B to kill rats.

Using the name of a close relative, he had ordered three kilogrammes of the deadly poison – which prosecutors claim is enough to kill 42,000 people – from a factory in the Czech Republic which markets the substance under the tradename ‘Uragan D2’.

When the man’s relatives received a confirmation for the order, which cost €82.50 ($115), they became suspicious and contacted the police.

The couple have two young children, aged seven and four years, but have been separated for some time.

The separation has reportedly long been distressing for the man, leading him to prior acts of violence against his ex-lover.

Prosecutors also charge that back in December 2007, the man assaulted and drugged his former partner and then raped her.

The woman eventually sought help of a women’s emergency help service in April 2008 and later reported the man to police for the December 2007 rape.

The 32-year-old is facing a lengthly prison sentence should he be found guilty of all charges.

He has been remanded in custody since February.

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CRIME

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

Several masked men, described by anti-racism magazine Expo as "a group of Nazis" carried out the attack at an event organised by the Left Party and Green Party. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 25 April 2024 09:35 CEST
Updated: 25 April 2024 12:16 CEST
EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

What happened?

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, according to police and participants.

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Moment theatre in Gubbängen, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, shortly after the attack.

According to Swedish media, one person was physically assaulted and two had paint sprayed in their faces.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence, with pepper spray, and vandalised the venue before throwing in some kind of smoke grenade which filled the foyer with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website. 

The magazine’s head of education Klara Ljungberg was at the event in order to hold a lecture at the invitation of the two political parties.

What was the meeting about?

According to the Left Party’s press officer, the event was “a meeting about growing fascism”. 

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar described the event to public broadcaster SVT as an “open event, for equality among individuals”.

As well as Ljungberg from Expo, panelists at the event included anti-fascist activist Mathias Wåg, who also writes for Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet.

“They were determined and went straight for me,” Wåg told Expo just after the attack. “I received a few blows but nothing that caused serious damage.”

“I was invited to be on a panel in order to discuss anti-fascism with representatives from the Left Party and the Green Party,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but there’s obviously a risk when Expo and I are in the same place.”

What has the reaction been like?

All of Sweden’s parties across the political spectrum have denounced the attack, with Dadgostar describing it as a “threat to our democracy” when TT newswire interviewed her at the theatre a few hours after the attack occurred.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the conservative Moderates, called the attack “abhorrent”.

The Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals are currently in government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, while the Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party are in opposition.

“It is appalling news that a meeting hosted by the Left Party has been stormed,” Kristersson told TT. “I have reached out to Nooshi Dadgostar and expressed my deepest support. This type of abhorrent action has no place in our free and open society.”

“Right-wing extremists want to scare us into silence,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson wrote on X. “They will never be allowed to succeed.”

“The attack by right-wing extremists at a political meeting is a direct attack on our democracy and freedom of speech,” Green Party co-leader Daniel Helldén wrote on X. “My thoughts are with those who were affected this evening.”

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote in an email to TT that “political violence is terrible, in all its forms, and does not belong in Sweden.”

“All democratic forces must stand in complete solidarity against all kinds of politically motivated violence,” he continued.

His party has previously admitted to being founded by people from “fascist movement” New Swedish Movement, skinheads, and people with “various types of neo-Nazi contact”.

“It is an attack not only on the Left Party, Green Party and the Expo Foundation, but also on our entire democratic society,” Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok, who referred to the attackers as “Nazis”, wrote on social media. “Those affected have all my support.”

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson both referred to the attackers as “anti-democratic forces”.

“It is never acceptable for a political meeting to be stormed by anti-democratic forces,” Busch wrote. “There is no place for this in our society.”

“Anti-democratic forces like this represent a serious threat to our democracy and must be met with society’s hardest iron fist,” Pehrson said.

What about the attackers? Has anyone been arrested?

Not yet. The police had not made any arrests at the time of writing on Thursday morning.

According to TT, police did not want to comment on who could be behind the attack.

It is currently being investigated as a violation of the Flammable and Explosive Goods Act, assault, causing danger to others and disturbing public order.

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