Three remanded for Swedish Nazi attack

Of the 26 people arrested in Sunday's violent clash in the southern Stockholm suburb of Kärrtorp, all but three have been released. Those three men were held on remand on Wednesday afternoon, on the suspicion of violent rioting (våldsamt upplopp).

 

The Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen – SMR) claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, where the 50 or so neo-Nazis attacked the demonstrators with fireworks, glass bottles, and sticks but were ultimately forced to retreat and flee.

 

IN PICTURES: Swedish police herd neo-Nazis away from anti-racism demonstrators in Kärrtorp on December 15th, 2013

 

The first of the men to be held on remand, Emil Hagberg, is believed to have been among the leaders of the attack, which saw three people rushed to hospital, including one police officer. Two of his accomplices, aged 23 and 24, were still in talks late on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Stockholm police, meanwhile, have organized raids on several of the homes belonging to those involved in the fracas.

 

"It's a completely normal thing to do, there's nothing strange about it," Stockholm county police spokesman Kjell Lindgren told the Aftonbladet newspaper. "We're looking for things that can propel the investigation forward, but I can't go into details about what we're doing," he added.

 

Several thousand Stockholmers have clicked that they will attend a new protest this Sunday organized by anti-racism organization Linje 17, named after the local metro line, which used Facebook to invite supporters to a new protest on the weekend. 

 

READ ALSO: "It's a kind of poverty of the soul… Racism and Nazism afford an immediate reward to its propagators."

 

"Nobody has applied for a protest permit yet, but they have plenty of time," Lindgren told the TT news agency. 

 

He underscored that extremists groups rarely seek official permits to assembly.

 

As Sweden was left shocked by the sudden outburst of violence at the original demonstration, political organizations across the country have decided to react. The minority Left Party in northern city Östersund has applied for a protest permit for Sunday, with local police noting that no extremist groups has applied for a counter-demo license.

 

 

The situation is similar in academic town Uppsala, one hour north of the capital, where anti-racist protesters have sought and been granted a permit, with no such action taken by any possible counter-demonstrators. 

 

Sweden's second city Gothenburg, however, will be first out as anti-racism protesters plan to assemble already on Thursday. There has been no application processed by the police there by counter-demonstrators.

 

"We haven't received such an application, neither is there any credible threat that we know of," Gothenburg police spokesman Peter Adlersson told TT.