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CRIME

Double murder suspect remanded in custody

Screams were heard from a courtroom in Växjö in southern Sweden on Tuesday as a 34-year-old woman was remanded in custody in connection with the Easter weekend murders of two men in Växjö in southern Sweden.

Double murder suspect remanded in custody

“Her psychological condition has deteriorated since she was arrested,” prosecutor Anna-Karin von Schoultz told Aftonbladet.

A medical examination on Tuesday afternoon will determine if the suspect can continue to be held in custody or whether she should be transferred to a local hospital.

The woman is believed to have known a 41-year-old man murdered on Sunday but had no apparent connection to a 70-year-old victim. Her DNA is also to be tested in connection with a five-year-old murder case in Gothenburg.

Police on Monday confirmed that the woman knew the 41-year-old.

“They knew each other, but I don’t want to go into how close they were acquainted, and we don’t really know anyway,” Stefan Karlsson at Växjö police told journalists on Monday.

Police have as yet been unable to establish a connection between the woman and the murdered 70-year-old and no motive has been established.

The 70-year-old man was found on the third floor of the apartment block outside the door to his home, with stab wounds to the body.

“He managed to call the ambulance himself,” Stefan Karlsson said.

The man was rushed to Växjö hospital where they immediately operated on him, but could not save his life.

“The police could not interview the man before the operation due to his injuries,” Stefan Karlsson said.

Police confirmed that the female suspect is not registered at the apartment where the 41-year-old man was found dead on Sunday. But according to the Aftonbladet tabloid, her name is on the door, although no one in the building was able to confirm having seen her.

The 70-year-old was found around 90 minutes later.

The woman is reported to have told passengers on a local Växjö bus that she had murdered two people, a story that she has not repeated to police in interviews.

“During the interrogation, she elected to decline to answer any of the officers’ questions,” said Stefan Karlsson.

According to Karlsson, the woman is not feeling well and has given a very confused impression.

Police are now hopeful that a five-year-old murder in Gothenburg will also now be solved.

A female store assistant was stabbed to death in a sewing shop in Gothenburg city centre at closing time on a Thursday in October 2005. Witnesses have described a mysterious woman in pink trousers and dark jacket, but police have been unable to locate her and no other tips have been received.

Traces of the unknown woman’s DNA were however found at the crime scene and police in Växjö and Gothenburg are now waiting to see if there is a match between the crimes.

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CRIME

Top-ranking Syrian military official to face trial in Sweden

The highest-ranking Syrian military official ever to be tried in Europe was set to face court in Sweden on Monday.

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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