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CRIME

Hundreds mourn teen murdered in Malmö

Hundreds of the friends, family and neighbours of the teenage boy shot dead in Malmö gathered on Friday evening for a sombre but defiant demonstration in his memory, as police pledged to bring an end to the murder wave sweeping the city.

Published: 14 January 2017 14:03 CET
Hundreds mourn teen murdered in Malmö
Mourners lit candles around the bus stop. Photo: Andreas Hillergren/TT
Mourners lit candles and laid flowers at the bus stop in Malmö’s Rosengård district where Ahmed Obaid, 16, was shot dead by as-yet unknown gunmen on Thursday evening. 
 
”We are gathered here to say: ‘That’s it now. It’s enough,” Redha Habib, a small businesswoman who represents the Iraqi community, told the crowd.
 
“Why is it always the best ones who are taken. Why?” Obaid’s cousin Ruaa Abbas told the local Sydsvenskan newspaper. “He wanted to be a doctor. He was going to have a maths test today and he had just bought a new calculator. I never thought that the violence would come so close to me. I still can’t grasp it.” 
 
Malmö police on Saturday branded the shooting “a special event” allowing them to release more resources to track down the killers. But by Saturday morning they admitted they had yet to make a breakthrough. 
 
“We want to make contact with everyone who knows something, has seen something, or has anything whatsoever that can help us,” police press spokesman Lars Förstell told the Sydsvenskan newspaper. 
 
Police do not believe that the boy's death is linked to Malmö's gangs, as the boy had no criminal record and was not previously known to the police.
 
Swedish Home Affairs minister Anders Ygeman on Friday pledged to do everything in his power to end the growing violence in the city, with 12 murders taking place in Malmö in 2016, a murder rate around three times that of London according to a report by the Reuters news agency.
 
“The presence of police must improve in socially exposed areas and the people guilty of these crimes must be put behind bars,” Ygeman told the TT newswire. “We are ready to offer the necessary resources and legislation to change the situation.”
 
Ygeman is travelling to Malmo next week to meet with city officials.
 
Rosengård locals told Sydsvenksan at the memorial that they wanted more police on the ground in the area as well as tougher penalties for criminals. 
 
“I really sympathise with the police,” Zeinab Bazzi told the paper. “They take a huge amount of shit, and I understand that they can’t watch our building 24 hours a day. They also must feel betrayed when criminals are let out of prison after only a month or two.” 
 
The local Sydsvenskan newspaper on Friday launched a campaign Framåt Malmö or Forward Malmö to push to improve conditions in the city. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

POLITICS

Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

Over a thousand people joined a demonstration in Gubbängen, southern Stockholm, on Saturday, protesting Wednesday's attack by far-right extremists on a lecture organised by the Left and Green parties.

Published: 27 April 2024 15:36 CEST
Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

The demonstration, which was organised by the Left Party and the Green Party together with Expo, an anti-extremist magazine, was held outside the Moment theatre, where masked assailants attacked a lecture organised by the two parties on Wednesday. 

In the attack, the assailants – described as Nazis by Expo – let off smoke grenades and assaulted several people, three of whom were hospitalised. 

“Let’s say it how it is: this was a terror attack and that is something we can never accept,” said Amanda Lind, who is expected to be voted in as the joint leader of the Green Party on Sunday. 

She said that those who had attended the lecture had hoped to swap ideas about how to combat racism. 

“Instead they had to experience smoke bombs, assault and were forced to think ‘have they got weapons’?. The goal of this attack was to use violence to generate fear and silence people,” she said.  

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

More than a thousand people gathered to protest the attack on a theatre in Gubbängen, Stockholm. Photo: Oscar Olsson/TT

Nooshi Dadgostar, leader of the Left Party, said that that society needed to stand up against this type of extreme-right violence. 

“We’re here today to show that which should be obvious: we will not give up, we will stand up for ourselves, and we shall never be silenced by racist violence,” said said.

Sofia Zwahlen, one of the protesters at the demonstration, told the DN newspaper that it felt positive that so many had turned up to show their opposition to the attacks. 

“It feels extremely good that there’s been this reaction, that we are coming together. I’m always a little worried about going to this sort of demonstration. But this feels safe.”

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