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Teen confesses to Swedish jogger’s murder

A man has confessed to the murder of a 21-year-old Swedish woman who went missing after a going out for a run in early August.

Published: 11 September 2015 13:13 CEST

Teen confesses to Swedish jogger's murder

Ida Johansson, who was found dead on a running track in Upplands Väsby. Photo: Polisen

A 19-year-old man has confessed to killing Ida Johansson, who was found dead in the early hours of August 6th in the Runby area of the Stockholm suburb of Upplands Väsby.

A tip-off from a member of the public saw police officers arrest the man on Thursday evening, and he confessed in the first round of interrogation soon after.

The man, who was not known to police previously, was caught by police after a witness placed him at the scene on the night of the crime. A DNA test confirmed that he had been in the area at the time of Johansson's death.

Tributes left at the running track in the Runby area of Upplands Väsby. Photo: Vilhelm Stokstad/TT

The search for the killer was extensive, seeing police comparing the DNA of over 800 men with traces found at the crime scene.

Police refused to go into details about the motive of the murder, nor any other details of the investigation, and did not comment on whether the woman had been a victim of a sexual assault.

The murder stirred debates in Sweden about female safety while out running. Just days after the woman was found dead, thousands of people took to tracks across the Nordic country in the much-publicized 'Run with love' campaign to pay tribute to Ida – and to show defiance in the face of fear.

The 19-year-old confessed to the high-profile murder on Thursday. Photo: TT

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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