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RINKEBY

Man arrested over Rinkeby riots

A man in his twenties has been arrested on suspicion of rioting after Tuesday night’s serious disturbances in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby. Police are now examining footage from security cameras and expect to make further arrests.

Published: 9 June 2010 18:22 CEST
Man arrested over Rinkeby riots

The man was arrested on Wednesday afternoon

“He has been detained and is previously known to the police,” said police spokeswoman Diana Sundin.

“We hope to make more arrests in the near future,” she added.

Meanwhile, disturbances in the area continued, with a fire breaking out in a parking garage. Police suspect arson. The fire was extinguished quickly, according to police.

“Four people were observed at the scene, and we are hopeful that we will be able to identify them,” said Sundin.

Education Minister Jan Björklund, Integration Minister Nyamko Sabuni and Local Government Minister Mats Odell visited Rinkeby School following the riots. Björklund said the purpose of the visit was “partly to inform ourselves, partly to show our support to the residents of Rinkeby.”

Björklund emphasised that all residents have the right to access public services such as the fire brigade. His comments follow last arson attack at a youth centre in Rinkeby. The fire brigade was prevented by the riots from getting close enough to extinguish the blaze, despite a police escort.

The efforts to fight the fire were delayed by several hours as a result, leading to the complete destruction of the building. A further ten or eleven fires broke out in Rinkeby and neighbouring Tensta during the course of the night.

A total of 20 police patrols were deployed in the area during the night.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the riots were a sign that society wasn’t working well for everyone. He said he hoped that parents, voluntary groups and other adults would communicate with young people in the area and try to ease tensions.

Stockholm County police commander Carin Götblad has meanwhile promised “powerful” and “resolute action” against any signs of continued rioting.

Rickard Loblom of the Blå Huset youth centre in Tensta said that frustration and a sense of alienation was growing among young people from ethnic minorities, who believe that they are treated differently to ethnic Swedes:


“It can get like this when young people think that action taken in areas like this is too rough, if they feel that the police suspect them of being potential criminals from the outset.”

RIOT

Riots erupt in Malmö after far-right activists burn Koran

At least 10 people were arrested, and several police officers injured, in violence which broke out in southern Sweden after an anti-Muslim Danish politician was blocked from attending a Koran-burning rally, police said on Saturday.

Published: 29 August 2020 07:37 CEST
Updated: 29 August 2020 16:49 CEST
Riots erupt in Malmö after far-right activists burn Koran
Rioters burn tyres on Amiralsgatan, Malmö on Friday night. Photo: TT
Well over 300 rioters were on Malmö's Amiralsgatan street, south of the Rosengård Centrum shopping centre, smashing bus shelters, overturning lampposts and destroying billboards. 
 
According to Malmö police, about 15 suspected rioters were arrested during the night, in violence which broke out in southern Sweden after a Koran-burning rally by far-extremists. Rasmus Paludan, leader of Denmark's far-Right anti-immigration Hard Line party was blocked from attending.
 
All of those arrested were released on Saturday morning. Police told The Local that about 13 people were likely to be charged with rioting offences, and told Sydsvenskan that they were currently looking for a few individuals who they suspected of encouraging young men at a peaceful demonstration to turn violent. 
 
“It's not right,” Malmo resident Shahed told the SVT public broadcaster. “But it wouldn't have happened if they hadn't burnt the Koran,” he added.
   
Rasmus Paludan, who leads the far-right Danish anti-immigration party Hard Line, was due to travel to Malmo to speak at Friday's event, which was being held on the same day as main weekly prayers for Muslims.
   
But authorities pre-empted Paludan's arrival by announcing he had been banned from entering Sweden for two years. He was later arrested near Malmo.
   
“We suspect that he was going to break the law in Sweden,” Calle Persson, spokesman for the police in Malmo told AFP.
 
“There was also a risk that his behaviour… would pose a threat to society.”
   
But his supporters went ahead with the rally, during which six people were arrested for inciting racial hatred.
   
“It hurts,” Salim Mohammed Ali, a Muslim resident of Malmo for over 20 years, told SVT on Saturday.
   
“People get angry and I understand that, but there are other ways of doing things,” he added.
   
Paludan last year attracted media attention for burning a Koran wrapped in bacon — a meat that is anathema for Muslims.   
   
Malmo is an industrial city of 320,000 inhabitants. In 2017, more than half the city's population, 53.6 percent, were either foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent. 
 
The riot started at around 7pm and continued up until 3am in the morning. 
 
The trouble flared after an incident earlier in the day in which members of Denmark's far-right Hard Line (Stram Kurs) party burned a copy of the Islamic holy book in the Malmö district of Emilstorp.
 
 
Police blocked off the street at the crossroads with Norra Grängebergsgatan, with the police presence increasing through the night until there were dozens of vans, several of which were armoured riot vans. 
 
Rioters pelted the police with stones, street furniture, burnt tyres and fired off fireworks, flares and bangers. 
 
“No member of the public has been wounded, but a few police officers are lightly wounded. Things have just been raining down on them,” Söderberg told TT. 
 
Patric Fors, another police spokesperson, said that police would be out on the streets of Rosengård on Saturday morning. 
 
“We have kept checks out there during the night but it remained calm, now this morning we're going to put in place confidence-building measures. Police will be moving around on feed, and talking with residents,” he told the Sydsvenskan newspaper. 
 
 
   
 
Samir Muric, a Malmö imam, condemned the rioters on his Facebook page. 
 
“Those who are acting in this way have nothing to do with Islam,” he wrote. Their shouts filled with 'la ilaha ill Allah' and 'Allahu Akbar' are just outbursts that they do not mean, because if they really meant that, they wouldn't have acted like this.” 
 
He said he was against all forms of burning “whether it's of the Koran or of tyres and crates”. 
 
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