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CRIME

Sweden to crack down on gang crime with tougher sentences for young people

The Swedish Justice Minister announced that he is pushing for tougher sentences for young offenders in a bid to combat a rising wave of gang violence.

Sweden to crack down on gang crime with tougher sentences for young people
Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson. Photo: Ali Lorestani/TT

The government will seek parliamentary approval to abolish the automatic reduction of sentences for defendants aged 18-20 convicted of serious crimes, such as murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery and gun crime, said Justice Minister Morgan Johansson.

“It’s better to try to target the crimes committed by those who do these crimes in a systematic way and live a criminal lifestyle,” Johansson told a press conference.

Sweden has been struggling for several years to deal with the rise of criminal gangs and the resulting increase in fatal shootings and score-settling in an otherwise peaceful country.

Sweden has the highest number of deadly shootings per capita in a report about European countries published in May by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.

In 2020, the country of just over 10 million people registered more than 360 incidents involving firearms, with 47 deaths and 117 injuries. Most of the victims and perpetrators were under the age of 30.

In the latest such incident, two children, aged five and six, were wounded by stray bullets while playing in the neighbourhood of Visättra in southern Stockholm over the weekend in what is believed to have been a gang-related shooting.

In early July, a police officer was killed in a shooting in Gothenburg, although he was not believed to have been the intended target.

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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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