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Second fatal shooting in 12 hours in Gothenburg

A man in his thirties has been killed in a parking lot in Gothenburg, just twelve hours after a fatal shooting at an apartment block in the city.

Published: 16 April 2015 11:34 CEST

Second fatal shooting in 12 hours in Gothenburg

Police at the scene on Thursday morning. Photo: TT

Police in the city have told The Local that the man was shot at while he was in a carpark Angered, about 13 kilometres north of the city centre.

The victim, who police say was "aged around 30", was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Regional newspaper GP has speculated that the shooting was gang related, but police have not commented on this.

"That is what some journalists may have said but this is not something we can talk about," Stefan Gustavson, a spokesperson for west Götaland police told The Local.

"There is very little we can say right now. We are investigating what happened. We do not have a suspect for this morning's shooting right now," he added.

The attack followed a separate deadly shooting on Wednesday night.

Officers were called to an apartment block in Brämaregården in Hisingen after a man in his fifties was shot. He also died later in hospital.

Four men in their 20s have been arrested following Wednesday's shooting and are being held by police on suspicion of murder and aggravated assault.

Both attacks come just a month after Gothenburg made global headlines after two people were killed and eight others injured in a shooting at a restaurant, which also took place in Hisingen.

While there have been dozens of shootings involving criminal gangs in Hisingen in recent years, fatalities are relatively rare.

“Today, the gang environment is… I don't want to exactly call it the Wild West, but something in that direction,” Amir Rostami, a leading authority on Sweden's organized crime groups told The Local last month.

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.

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