SHARE
COPY LINK
THOMAS QUICK

CRIME

Ex-serial killer to stay behind bars: council

Sture Bergwall, known as self-confessed serial killer Thomas Quick who retracted all his confessions, will not be let out of psychiatric care. Bergwall dubbed the decision "Soviet" in its "disregard for justice".

Ex-serial killer to stay behind bars: council

TV4 news reported on Thursday that the National Health and Welfare Board’s legal council (Socialstyrelsens rättsliga råd) ruled it was too early to make a judgment about whether Bergvall poses any threat to society if let out of Säter psychiatric hospital in central Sweden.

The eighth and final murder charge against Bergwall was discarded on July 31st, the final nail in the coffin of an extensive justice system scandal in which he confessed to a string of killings that took place between 1994 and 2001. He was convicted of eight murders, but has now been cleared of all charges.

Bergwall, who blogs from inside Säter, expressed his regret over Thursday’s verdict and accused the welfare board of not accessing enough information about his case before making its ruling.

“(The council) had the possibility of asking for more information to make its decision, but chose not to,” Bergwall blogged. “They then lay bare a total lack of respect for an individual person and for defending justice (rättssäkerhet).”

Bergwall went on to accuse the council of having a “Soviet attitude” to having safe and accountable justice system.

“It’s creepy,” Bergwall wrote.

“The justice system has, through discarding the verdicts (against me), shown that it can deal with this huge miscarriage of justice,” he continued.

“Correctional services’ psychiatric care and now the legal council do not have the capacity to do the same. It’s horrifying.”

TT/The Local/Ann Törnkvist

Follow The Local on Twitter

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

‘A group of Nazis’: Masked men attack Swedish anti-fascism meeting

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, Swedish police and participants said.

'A group of Nazis': Masked men attack Swedish anti-fascism meeting

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Gubbängen theatre in a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, adding that it had no information about the injuries suffered.

READ ALSO:

According to the Expo anti-racism magazine, which had been invited to give a presentation at the event, “a group of Nazis” came into the theatre foyer just before the event was to begin and threw smoke bombs into the hall.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence… (and) vandalised the premises before throwing a type of smoke bomb that filled the entrance hall with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

“It’s terrible that a meeting organised by the left-wing party has been attacked,” said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, quoted by the TT news agency.

“This type of hateful behaviour has no place in our free and open society,” he said, adding that he had contacted the party’s leader to express his “deepest support”.

All of Sweden’s political parties denounced the assault as an “attack on democracy”, TT said.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar told public broadcaster SVT that an “open event, for equality among individuals” was “violently attacked by those who seemed to be Nazis”.

She also called on “all political forces” to fight the “far right that threatens our democracy”.

SHOW COMMENTS