SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Fiancé held for Falun woman’s murder

The fiancé of a woman missing in Falun in north-central Sweden, was remanded in custody on Tuesday by the Dalarna District Court on suspicions of having killed the woman he was set to marry.

Fiancé held for Falun woman's murder

Thirty-four-year-old Mats Alm was brought in by Dalarna police on Monday on suspicion of murder or kidnapping.

After appearing before the Dalarna district court on Tuesday, Alm has ordered remanded in custody for the killing of his fiancé, Linda Chen.

During the two hour proceedings, Alm denied having committed the crime and gave his own version of the events surrounding his Chen’s disappearance and the discovery of a body suspected to be hers.

The prosecution believes Alm is lying.

A few minutes into the remand hearing, the lead judge decided to usher all media and members of the public out and continued proceedings behind closed doors.

Alm has been questioned repeatedly by the Dalarna police, most recently on Sunday, in a detailed interrogation pertaining to the disappearance of Chen and to his own erratic behaviour last Friday by the side of national highway 80, between Falun and Rättvik.

Despite strong evidence suggesting that the body found on Friday is that of Chen, police officials remain reluctant to publicly identify the body.

“We are still treating the body as an unidentified deceased individual. We are waiting on the autopsy results to provide identification details, amongst other things,” Hans-Åke Hedin, a public relations officer for the Dalarna police, told TT on Monday.

Hedin was equally reluctant to reveal any of Alm’s remarks in during his police interrogation at the weekend.

“We’ve questioned him again, but nothing has changed. He denies everything,” said Hedin.

The woman’s remains have been sent to Uppsala to be autopsied. Only following the completion of the autopsy will investigators be able to identify the cause of death.

Police have yet to determine the precise location where the killing took place, however, it is believed that the woman was not murdered at the same location where the body was found.

According to Hedin, it remains unclear how long the body believed to be that of Chen had lain dead in the forest before being discovered.

Hedin also declined to comment upon the condition of the body, or to clarify whether evidence of a fire was discovered at the site, but asserted that Mats Alm had no connection to the area in which the body was found.

It was on Friday afternoon that Alm appeared on the side of the road, badly burned and disoriented, informing several individuals that he had discovered the body of a dead woman in the woods.

He was driven to the hospital and, later that evening, turned over to the police, where he was held for questioning.

The same day, the body of the dead woman was also discovered in the area.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

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.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS