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CRIME

Germany extradites ‘laser man’ racist killer to Sweden

Germany said Friday it had extradited to Sweden John Ausonius, the convicted killer known as "the laser man" for using a precision-scope rifle to target immigrants and a Holocaust survivor.

Germany extradites 'laser man' racist killer to Sweden
Ausonius on trial in Frankfurt in February 2018. Photo: DPA

“He was extradited on Thursday,” Frankfurt state prosecutor Nadja Niesen
told AFP.

Ausonius, a 65-year-old Swedish citizen, has been found guilty of murder in
both countries, most recently receiving a life term in Germany in February
last year that was upheld on appeal in November.

Previously he was already serving a life sentence in Sweden for a six-month
shooting spree in 1991-92.

Using the laser-scoped rifle, he had killed a 34-year-old Iranian man and
wounded 10 other people from countries including Brazil, Greece, Syria and
Zimbabwe.

In a sign of Ausonius's notoriety, Norwegian white supremacist mass
murderer Anders Behring Breivik at his own trial mentioned the “laser man” as
a figure who shared the same goals.

The convict, who was extradited to Germany in late 2016, was in February
2018 found guilty of the murder of 68-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor
Blanka Zmigrod in Frankfurt in 1992.

Ausonius, having now received life terms in two countries, is considered
almost certain to spend the rest of his life locked up without parole.

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LANDSLIDE

Swedish authorities: Worker negligence behind motorway landslide

Swedish authorities said on Thursday that worker negligence at a construction site was believed to be behind a landslide that tore apart a motorway in western Sweden in September.

Swedish authorities: Worker negligence behind motorway landslide

The landslide, which struck the E6 highway in Stenungsund, 50 kilometres north of Sweden’s second-largest city Gothenburg, ripped up a petrol station car park, overturned lorries and caved in the roof of a fast food restaurant.

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Prosecutor Daniel Veivo Pettersson said on Thursday he believed “human factors” were behind the landslide as “no natural cause” had been found during the investigation.

He told a press conference the landslide had been triggered by a nearby construction site where too much excavated material had been piled up, putting excessive strain on the ground below. 

“At this stage, we consider it negligent, in this case grossly negligent, to have placed so much excavated material on the site,” Pettersson said.

Pettersson added that three people were suspected of among other things gross negligence and causing bodily harm, adding that the investigation was still ongoing.

The worst-hit area covered around 100 metres by 150 metres, but the landslide affected an area of around 700 metres by 200 metres in total, according to emergency services.

Three people were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the collapse, according to authorities.

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