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‘Businessman’ took millions from faulty cash machines

Charges have been filed against a 54-year-old man who managed to withdraw nearly 3 million kronor ($380,000) from various cash machines in Landskrona in southern Sweden.

Published: 14 July 2009 13:30 CEST

'Businessman' took millions from faulty cash machines

A technical glitch at the bank allowed the man to make 376 withdrawals from five different cash machines within a few hours late during the night of April 6th this year.

Altogether, the man managed to take out 2.825 million kronor before disappearing out of the country.

The man was arrested in Poland on April 19th, but had to be released because an international warrant had not yet been issued for his arrest, according to the Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper.

Police eventually issued a warrant and were able to bring the man back to Sweden, whereupon he was remanded in custody.

But the man’s return to Swedish soil left a number of questions unanswered as to what happened to the missing loot.

According to the 54-year-old, he was robbed during his time abroad, although he did manage to turn over half of the cash to his lawyer.

He contests the charges of gross fraud brought by prosecutors, arguing instead that his actions would be better addressed through the lesser charge of unlawful conduct.

The man is part owner of two small companies and has private debts of around 100,000 kronor and had previously been convicted for various crimes, including the smuggling of narcotics, according to Helsingborgs Dagblad.

The trial of the 54-year-old is expected to start next week in the district court in Lund in southern Sweden.

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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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