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CRIME

Suspect arrested over car park murder

A 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the brutal parking lot assault that led to the death of a 78-year-old woman in Landskrona in southern Sweden.

Suspect arrested over car park murder

The suspect was interrogated on Friday afternoon and the prosecutor is expected to determine whether or not there are sufficient grounds to arraign him.

“We are unsure of how the prosecutor will weigh the evidence,” detective Tommy Lindén told TT news agency.

The 23-year-old man is the fifth suspect who has been brought in for questioning involuntarily.

Lindén said that the other suspects are the man’s friends and relatives.

The 23-year-old was identified based on witness testimony.

“We were able to encourage people to come forward and testify,” Lindén said.

The original charges include aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter after the woman died. Police have since upgraded the crime to murder. “But that can change again,” Lindén said.

Earlier on Friday he described the investigation as extremely difficult.

“There has to be someone in Landskrona who will come forward and tell us what they know. It all depends on someone telling the truth. We know that someone has lied,” he told TT.

On Thursday, police impounded a car found in Landskrona.

“It might be the car used by the attacker. But we don’t know that for sure, it may have been another vehicle,” Lindén said.

Police questioned the owner of the car on Thursday. The man in question is in his thirties. Police declined to comment on what information he might have revealed.

The car, a red Mazda 323, is now impounded in a police garage in Helsingborg for forensic processing, which Lindén says may take “two or three days.”

A 36-year-old and a 27-year-old were also questioned about the crime on Thursday. Both are local residents and provided useful information. Neither are suspects in the case, Lindén said.

He did not provide details on what the men said, but both are believed to have been in the parking lot when the elderly woman was assaulted.

Helsingborg prosecutor Göran Olsson will be reviewing the case, according to police.

The Skåne police department hopes to resolve the case over the Easter weekend.

“It’s going to be all-nighters for us. We have brought in extra staff over the weekend and are firing on all cylinders to solve this,” Lindén said.

The 78-year-old woman lost consciousness after she was punched in the face while trying to intervene on behalf of her 71-year-old partner who was being attacked by a man in a parking dispute.

After surgery at a neurological surgery unit in nearby Lund, her condition improved slightly before worsening again on Tuesday afternoon. She died in her hospital bed at around 4pm on Wednesday with relatives consenting to end her treatment after doctors said they were powerless to restore her to health.

A group of Landskrona businesses offered a reward of 40 000 kronor ($5,500) for tips leading to the arrest of the attacker. A demonstration against violence is planned in Landskrona on Monday.

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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.

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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