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ALMEDALEN 2022

Swedish extremist ‘bought swords and bow for Almedalen attack’

Theodor Engström, the far-right extremist who fatally stabbed one of Sweden's leading psychiatrists at the Almedalen political festival, had brought two swords and a bow and arrow to Visby to carry out his attack, prosecution documents revealed on Tuesday.

Swedish extremist 'bought swords and bow for Almedalen attack'
Police and rescue services arrive at Donners plats in Visby after psychiatrist Ing-Marie Wieselgren was stabbed. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

The prosecutor Henrik Olin on Tuesday morning charged the 33-year-old with committing a terror crime through murder for stabbing Ing-Marie Wieselgren, and also for preparation for a terror crime for his alleged plot to kill the Centre Party leader Annie Lööf. 

In the prosecution document, it states that Engström began preparing for his attack on June 20th, and had purchased a double-bladed knife, two swords and a bow and arrow, which he had left in the tent where he was staying at the time he stabbed Wieselgren. He had also collected together information on where Lööf would be during the festival. 

In a press release, the court said that Engström, who psychiatrists have concluded was severely disturbed at the time of the attack, will go on trial between November 9th and November 15th. Engström has a background in the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement. 

In his stämningsansökan or prosecution document, the prosecutor Henrik Olin wrote that the attack “could have seriously hurt Sweden” and that Engström had carried out the attack to “strike grave terror into the population or parts of the population”. 

READ ALSO: What we know about the Almedalen knife attack 

The Almedalen political festival, where Olin carried out his attack, is one of the key events in the Swedish year, with all of the eight parliamentary parties, civil society groups, companies and government agencies, all holding speeches, talks, debates and other events. 

Engström is pleading guilty to all charges, and has admitted both to killing Wieselgren and to have had Lööf as a target.

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CRIME

Top-ranking Syrian military official to face trial in Sweden

The highest-ranking Syrian military official ever to be tried in Europe was set to face court in Sweden on Monday.

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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