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LULEÅ

Suspect re-arrested in axe victim murder trial

The 23-year-old man acquitted by a Luleå court last week of the murder of a 51-year-old Haparanda man in April, has been re-arrested by police.

“Of course we are opposed to him being brought back into custody, but we will now concentrate on the remand hearing which will take place within four days,” said the man’s lawyer Lars Grönberg to local paper Norrbottenskuriren.

The arrest occurred after the appeals court had received the official appeal against the acquittal from the prosecutor.

The 51-year-old victim, Esa Rano, was found dead in his home in a small village outside of Haparanda, far northern Sweden.

The court wrote in their judgment last week that it was “highly likely” that it was the 23-year-old who shot Rano, but the court lacked forensic evidence linking the acquitted man to the murder weapon or to the plastic bottle that was used as a silencer.

Rano’s death resulted in great public attention as he had previously been involved in a violent feud that had raged in the village of Vojakkala for over twenty years and survived an 2008 attack where he sustained serious injuries after receiving axe blows to the neck and face.

His death in April this year, however, was caused by a shot to the head.

The trial, which was held at the Luleå District Court in northern Sweden, had also been disrupted by several incidents related to the investigation.

A bomb threat interrupted proceedings for one day in late August and a key witness became a suspect before being freed soon thereafter.

The 23-year-old suspect was re-arrested by police on Wednesday evening and is being held pending a formal remand hearing.

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SNOW

‘The perfect workout’: gym clears snow for free

A gym in northern Sweden has turned this week’s monster snowfall into “the perfect workout”, sending its members out for an hour on Saturday to shovel snow around the city for free.

Aerobic snow-shovelling on Saturday morning: Crossfit Holistics webpage
Daniel Muotka, who runs Crossfit Holistics in Luleå, one of Sweden's most northerly cities, took a class of ten from his gym out between eleven and twelve on Saturday morning to clear snow from driveways across the city.  
 
“We went all out for one hour, so it was a pretty hard workout," he told The Local. "It’s the perfect training. You get the cardio and you get the strength. You can make it as hard as you want or as easy as you want depending on your fitness level. And it’s fun.” 
 
Muotka had the idea earlier this week after the city received almost metre of snow in four days. 
 
“It’s obviously chaos in Luleå because of all the snow that’s fallen, and we have a gym full of people that love to sweat and work out, so I thought why not do something useful with all the energy?” 
 
Muotka posted a message on his Facebook page on Friday lunchtime offering to shovel snow for anyone who’d make him and members of his gym a cup of coffee. Close to a hundred people responded, who Muotka  then ranked according to need, putting old people whose grandchildren were away living in southern Sweden ahead of the local companies who applied. 
 
“We did what we could with the people we had,” he said. 
 
Muotka has now launched a campaign, "Snöhjälpen" (or 'snow help') on  his company's Facebook page, which he hopes will inspire other gyms across Sweden to run similar snow-shovelling 'workouts'. 
 
"We want to attract gyms from all over Sweden to do the same thing," he said. "Everyone can help out it doesn’t have to be a gym. We can't do it all ourselves. Some people are really snowed in. I don’t know when we’ve had as much snow as this.”