Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

LJUNGSBRO DOUBLE MURDER

CRIME

‘Mentally ill’ man admits double murder

The man suspected of the brutal double murder in Ljungsbro at the beginning of November has confessed to the crime. Initial medical examinations meanwhile indicate that he is suffering from a serious mental disorder.

Published: 26 November 2013 09:57 CET

'Mentally ill' man admits double murder

Swedish flag at half mast in the town of Ljungsbro near Linköping. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad/TT

A 15-year-old boy and a 57-year-old woman died in the early hours of November 2nd. The man who has now confessed to the crimes was arrested in the vicinity and initially said he had no recollection of the events.

His lawyer, former justice minister Thomas Bodström, said on Monday that his client's memories remain fragmented.

"He still has only fragmentary memories, but he understands that it is he who has done this now," Bodström told broadcaster TV4.

Bodström said that the 33-year-old had expressed deep remorse over his actions.

According to an initial mental examination the suspect is most likely suffering from a serious mental disorder, according to the TV4 report.

At 2am on Saturday a woman alerted police that a man had broke into the basement of her house. The man was accompanied by two boys, born in 1998 and 1999. The woman ended up in a scuffle with the man and was able to free one of the boys with the help of her boyfriend.

The man is then believed to have left the house with the older boy. Another couple who were in a nearby house saw the man and came out to assist. The pair approached the 33-year-old man seeking to intervene after realizing from the screaming and shouting that it was no ordinary argument.

"I wondered what the hell he was doing. I thought at first he was standing there and hitting the hill," the boyfriend of the 57-year-old woman told the Aftonbladet daily at the time, explaining that he realized they were watching a boy being beaten with a metal rod.

The man then explained how the couple ran towards the offender, screaming at him to stop.

"He came at us like a madman. He was only a few feet away from us when I screamed."

The 57-year-old woman sustained a fatal blow in the ensuing scuffle. After initially being wrestled to the ground the man was able to flee from the scene. When police arrived with dog handlers, they managed to quickly find the man and detain him.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Top-ranking Syrian military official to face trial in Sweden

Sixty-five-year-old former Syrian brigadier general Mohammed Hamo, who lives in Sweden, stands accused of “aiding and abetting” war crimes during Syria’s civil war, which can carry a sentence of life in jail.

The war in Syria between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and armed opposition groups, including the Islamic State, erupted after the government repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.

It has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions, and ravaged the country’s economy and infrastructure.

According to the charge sheet, Hamo contributed – through “advice and action” – to the Syrian army’s warfare, “which systematically involved indiscriminate attacks on several towns or places in the area in and around the towns of Hama and Homs”.

The charges concern the period of January 1st to July 20th, 2012 and the trial is expected to last until late May.

Prosecutors say that the Syrian army’s “warfare has included widespread air and ground attacks by unknown perpetrators within the Syrian army”.

The prosecution argues that strikes were carried out without distinction – as required by international law – between civilian and military targets.

In his role as a brigadier general and head of an armament division, he allegedly helped with the coordination and supply of arms to units, enabling the carrying out of orders on an “operational level”.

Hamo’s lawyer, Mari Kilman, told AFP that her client denied committing a crime but said she did not wish to comment further ahead of the trial.

Several plaintiffs are due to testify at the trial, including Syrians from the cities in question and a British photographer who was injured during one of the strikes.

‘Complete impunity’

“The attacks in and around Homs and Hama in 2012 resulted in widespread civilian harm and an immense destruction of civilian properties,” Aida Samani, senior legal advisor at rights group Civil Rights Defenders, told AFP.

“The same conduct has been repeated systematically by the Syrian army in other cities across Syria with complete impunity,” she continued.

This trial will be the first in Europe “to address these types of indiscriminate attacks by the Syrian army”, according to Samani, who added that it “will be the first opportunity for victims of the attacks to have their voices heard in an independent court”.

Hamo is the highest-ranking military official to actually go on trial in Europe, but other European countries have also tried to bring charges against even more senior members.

In March, Swiss prosecutors charged Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of president Bashar al-Assad, with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

However, it remains unlikely Rifaat al-Assad – who recently returned to Syria after 37 years in exile – will show up in person for the trial, for which a date has yet to be set.

Swiss law allows for trials in absentia under certain conditions.

Last November, France issued an international arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad himself, who stands accused of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes over chemical attacks in 2013.

Three other international warrants were also issued for the arrests of Bashar al-Assad’s brother Maher, the de-facto chief of the Fourth Division – an elite military unit of the Syrian army – and two generals.

In January of 2022, a German court sentenced former Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan to life in jail for crimes against humanity in the first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria, which was hailed by victims as a victory for justice.

Url copied to clipboard!