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THEFT

Man hit by train after robber leaves him to die

Instead of helping a man who had passed out on a subway track in Stockholm, a passer-by chose to rob the unconscious victim before leaving him to be run over by a train.

Man hit by train after robber leaves him to die

“This shows an unusual ruthlessness,” said Peter Brottman of the South Stockholm police to daily Aftonbladet.

The victim, referred to in the Swedish media as Johnny, 38, was returning home after a drunken night out on the town with his friends when he fell down on the tracks at Sandsborg metro station south of Stockholm.

Shortly thereafter he was robbed of all his valuables and left on the tracks before being run over by an oncoming train.

Despite sustaining serious injuries, Johnny nevertheless survived the accident, as only five metres of the train actually ran him over.

“He had amazing luck, really. The train came from the other direction and the driver managed to see him and pull the emergency brakes,” Brottman told Aftonbladet.

The incident, which occurred early on Sunday morning, was caught by security cameras and will be featured on the TV show Efterlyst (‘Wanted’) on TV3 on Wednesday evening.

Police are hoping that someone might be able to identify the perpetrator from the security camera footage.

The investigation into what happened has just begun but according to police they have been able to see from the footage that two people got off at the station shortly after 3am on Sunday morning.

“One was noticeably drunk and he was followed by another who seemed sober. The sober man was ‘bothering’ the inebriated one, but we don’t know why he was trying to pick his pockets or what he was doing,” Dan Östman of the Stockholm police told news agency TT.

After exiting the subway train, Johnny sat down on a bench but eventually got up again and walked along the platform before falling down on the tracks.

The man who had been bothering him then followed, jumped down on the tracks, got back up again, and exited the turnstiles.

“He pocketed a wallet, a mobile phone and a gold chain. Then he jumped back up on the platform and just walked away. He didn’t call the emergency services or notify the ticket collector at the station“ said Peter Brottman to TT.

Johnny is still being treated in hospital. Half of his left foot has been amputated and his right knee has been damaged to a point where he’ll need a prosthetic in future.

However, based on the footage, police have classified the incident as aggravated theft.

“We are classifying it as aggravated theft rather than robbery, as the latter implies that the perpetrator threatens or renders his victim in a state of powerlessness and we didn’t see anything like that. The person who was drunk had achieved that state of powerlessness himself,” said Östman to TT.

That the perpetrator didn’t try to assist the helpless man on the tracks or call emergency services is not something he could be charged for.

“There is no law that says he has to take action,” said Östman to TT.

Johnny’s partner Louise is still in shock from what has happened.

“I have cried, cried and cried. When I heard what had happened I was angry, sad and full of hatred. I was shocked that anyone could leave a person on the track to die,” she told Aftonbladet.

Video courtesy of Efterlyst and TV3play.se

The Local/rm

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ART

Spanish banker gets jail term for trying to smuggle Picasso masterpiece out of Spain on yacht

A Spanish court has sentenced a former top banker to 18 months in jail for trying to smuggle a Picasso painting deemed a national treasure out of the country on a sailing yacht.

Spanish banker gets jail term for trying to smuggle Picasso masterpiece out of Spain on yacht
Head of a Young Woman by Pablo Picasso Photo: AFP

The court also fined ex-Bankinter head Jaime Botín €52.4 million ($58.4 million), according to the Madrid court ruling issued on January 14th which was made public on Thursday.   

It awarded ownership of the work, “Head of a Young Girl”, to the Spanish state.

Botin, 83, is unlikely to go to prison as in Spain first offenders for non-violent crimes are usually spared jail time for sentences of less than two years.   

French customs seized the work, which is estimated to be worth €26 million, in July 2015 on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, halting what they said was an attempt by Botin to export it to Switzerland to sell it.

His lawyers argued at the time that he was sending it for storage in a vault in Geneva but the court found him guilty of “smuggling cultural goods” for removing the painting “from national territory without a permit”.

Botin, whose family are one of the founders of the Santander banking group, had been trying since 2012 to obtain authorisation to export the painting.   

However Spain's culture ministry refused the request because there was “no similar work on Spanish territory” from the same period in Picasso's life.    

In 2015, a top Spanish court sided with the authorities and declared the work of art “unexportable” on the grounds that it was of “cultural interest”.    

Picasso painted it during his pre-Cubist phase in Gosol, Catalonia, in 1906. It was bought by Botin in London in 1977.

Botin's lawyers had argued that the work should not be subjected to an export ban since it was acquired in Britain and was on board a British-flagged vessel when it was seized.

When customs officials boarded the yacht, its captain only presented two documents — one of which was the court ruling ordering that the painting be kept in Spain.

The painting is currently stored at the Reina Sofia modern art museum in Madrid, which houses Picasso's large anti-war masterpiece “Guernica”.

READ MORE: Banking family's Picasso seized on Corsica boat

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