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Suspected double murderer remanded

On Friday, a 23-year-old man suspected of murdering a couple near Båstad in southern Sweden was remanded into custody.

Published: 12 July 2009 09:50 CEST

In autumn 2007, the Helsingborg District Court dismissed murder charges against the then 21-year-old man for the murder of a 64-year-old man and 58-year-old woman who lived near Båstad, 110 kilometres north of Malmö.

The couple disappeared at the beginning of 2007, but their bodies had not been found when the man was put on trial for their murder.

At that point, police reported that forensic evidence from the couple’s car linked the man to the couple’s disappearance. The 21-year-old had taken the car and sold it following the couple’s disappearance.

The couple’s bodies were later found in a lake outside of Lund in May 2008. They had been stabbed and the man’s hands were tied behind his back.

The discovery of the bodies led the police to believe that the man had been more involved in the pair’s disappearance than was previously believed.

He did not confess to the crime, but blamed an unknown man, a transient whom he had met at Knutpunkten in Helsingborg. Police have searched for the unknown man, but have never found him.

The court of appeals found that had this information been known during the previous trial, he would have likely been found guilty of murder or aggravated assault and manslaughter. On that basis, the court granted a retrial and the double murder case will be heard by the district court.

The suspect denies the accusations. The court found reasonable grounds to suspect the man for both murders, and remanded him into custody.

The court was also of the opinion that he could hinder the investigation, and the prosecutor has thus received permission to limit his contact with the outside world, among other restrictions.

During the custody negotiations, prosecutor Göran Olsson requested that the 23-year-old be remanded on murder charges. The court decided that the negotations should be held behind closed doors due to the secrecy of the preliminary investigations.

This is the second time the man has been remanded into custody for the crime. The Court of Appeal (Hovrätten) in Malmö granted a new trial on Friday and man was arrested shortly thereafter.

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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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