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Second suspect arrested in teen stabbing case

Another person has been arrested in the investigation of the Landskrona killing on Monday in southern Sweden, where a 19-year-old woman was stabbed to death.

Published: 26 April 2012 15:53 CEST

“This is a woman born in 1973. She was apprehended at 6pm on Wednesday and was formally arrested at 8.45pm,” said police spokesperson Eva-Lotta Hermansson Truedsson to news agency TT.

According to prosecutor Magnus Larsson, the arrested woman could be described as close to the victim.

He said that the woman is under suspicion of instigating the murder and that it is possible that the circle of suspects could widen.

The 19-year-old woman was found dead just before midnight on Monday in her apartment in Landskrona in southern Sweden, with multiple stab wounds to her body.

Currently, it doesn’t seem as if either of the two apprehended suspects will be released.

“Not the way it looks right now, but there are a number of measures being carried out and the situation could easily change,” said the prosecutor to TT.

Police arrested the woman’s 16-year-old brother after finding him outside the apartment, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported on Wednesday.

It has been alleged that the boy killed his sister for disgracing their family by having several boyfriends and trying to build a life for herself away from home, but this has not been confirmed by police.

On Wednesday it became known that the 19-year-old had been feeling threatened for some time and had been in contact with a support group, which was trying to fix her up with sheltered accommodation in another municipality, through the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen).

The national organization Glöm aldrig Pela och Fadime (GAPF), a group honouring two of Sweden’s most publicized cases of so-called “honour killings” has now reported the municipality handled the threats that the 19-year-old girl was living under.

The group is questioning whether the authorities have been observant enough of the increased threats against the woman before her death.

The municipality also asked the county administrative board (Länsstyrelsen) to review their support measures for women who live under threat.

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'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast.

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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