Teens convicted over explosion in Uppsala’s gang war

Two teenagers have been convicted in connection to an explosion in a residential area in Lövstalöt outside Uppsala in December, which caused significant damage to at least one house and according to the prosecutor can be linked to the ongoing gang conflict in the city.

A 15-year-old was caught fleeing the scene in a taxi and an 18-year-old was arrested in Stockholm.

The younger boy has now been sentenced to eight months in juvenile detention. The court found him guilty of “destruction causing public
endangerment” but cleared him of attempted murder. The older teenager, who has since turned 19, was found guilty of aiding and abetting destruction causing public endangerment, as well as violating Sweden’s act on flammable and explosive goods, and faces four years in jail.

The court also ordered the teenagers to pay just over 200,000 kronor in damages.

Swedish vocabulary: destruction causing public endangerment – allmänfarlig ödeläggelse

New party wants to scrap asylum rights

A new party started by ousted Christian Democrat MEP Sara Skyttedal and ex-Social Democrat politician Jan Emanuel has put forward the first points in its manifesto ahead of the upcoming EU elections: scrapping the right to asylum and renegotiating Sweden’s EU membership.

The party’s representatives consist of a wide range of political persuasions, who all have in common that they’ve grown tired of having to toe their respective party’s line – although the policies that have so far been put forward are usually associated with the hard right. 

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch said she hadn’t been surprised to hear the news. 

“I’ve been hearing those rumours ever since Sara Skyttedal left us,” she told the TT news agency after a campaign event in Gothenburg on Tuesday. “But I think it’s a pretty good name,” she said about the party’s name, Folklistan (literally “the people list”).

Magdalena Andersson, leader of the Social Democrats, said she wasn’t worried about losing votes to Folklistan.

“It’s been started by one of those figures in Swedish politics who’s the furthest to the right, so the risk of taking voters from the Social Democrats is perhaps smaller than taking voters from other right-wing parties,” she said, referring to Skyttedal. 

Swedish vocabulary: a rumour – ett rykte 

Teen caught carrying two-kilo bomb through Gothenburg train station

A 17-year-old has been remanded in custody after he was caught carrying at least two kilos of dynamite through Gothenburg Central Station, TT quotes local newspaper Göteborgs-posten as writing.

A police officer who was present when the boy was arrested last week says the explosives were ready to be lit. 

“The place in question, the central station, where there are a lot of people passing through, makes this a very serious incident. Something can go wrong and it would then have been an awful bang,” deputy chief prosecutor Karl-Erik Esbo told the newspaper. 

It is not known how the bomb was meant to be used. The prosecutor believes the teenager was “an errand boy” and it may be linked to gang crime and previous explosions in the Frölunda part of the western Swedish city.

Swedish vocabulary: a bang – en smäll

Swedish tax agency to pay out record 34 billion kronor in rebates

The Swedish tax agency, Skatteverket, has started sending out this year’s tax rebates.

A whopping 3.3 million taxpayers will this week receive a combined tax rebate of 34 billion kronor, seven billion more than last year.

The early refunds will only be sent to those who are due money back, who filed their tax return online by April 3rd at the latest and who did not have to make any changes to their pre-filled-out tax form. 

If you fall into this category, you will receive your tax rebate between April 9th and 12th if you’ve informed Skatteverket of your bank account details. If you haven’t yet done that, you’ve still got time, and you should expect to get your money back within around a week.

Swedish vocabulary: tax rebate – skatteåterbäring