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Two bodies found in trunk of burning car

Two dead bodies have been found in the trunk of a burned out car near Getinge between Halmstad and Falkenberg in western Sweden, prompting police to launch a murder investigation.

Published: 7 January 2010 08:45 CET
Updated: 7 January 2010 10:19 CET

Two bodies found in trunk of burning car

Shortly after 11pm on Wednesday night, emergency crews received a call about a car on fire on a bridge over the E6 motorway near Getinge.

The fire was intense, catching the attention of motorists passing by below on the E6.

Police initially reported that one person had been found in the trunk, but on Thursday morning police confirmed media reports that an additional body had been found in the wreckage.

The car was a red Volvo S60, but police are refusing to say if they know to whom the car was registered or whether they had contacted the owner.

According to the Svergies Radio’s local affiliate in Halland, one of the victims was a man, while the gender of the second victim remains unknown.

Police have released a statement requesting any eyewitnesses to come forward with information about the fire, which broke out shortly after 11pm on Wednesday night.

“The information we’re looking for includes sightings at the time of the fire or just before,” police spokesperson Caroline Bjerlestam told the TT news agency.

When emergency services had extinguished the flames they discovered the first body in the boot of the car.

“Because the person was found in the luggage trunk we can’t rule out that a serious crime has been committed,” lead investigator Håkan Andersson told the Kvällsposten newspaper.

“In order to not miss anything in the early stages of the investigation, we’ve launched a preliminary investigation into murder.”

The area has been blocked off and a forensic investigation was carried out. Later during the night, the charred remains of the car were moved to Halmstad to allow for a more thorough examination.

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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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