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Man in ‘oil tank’ killing gets six years

A 31-year old man from Teckomatorp in southern Sweden who killed his live-in girlfriend and hid her body in an oil tank has been sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter.

Published: 11 February 2008 18:46 CET

Prison sentences for manslaughter in Sweden range from six to ten years.

The head prosecutor Mikael Björk refused to comment on why the 31-year old received the minimum sentence.

He wasn’t prepared to state whether or not he would appeal the ruling before he had read it completely, he said after the sentence was announced.

Judge Jan Alvå emphasized that the case rested in large part on the 31-year old’s version of events.

The court was unanimous in finding that the man lacked malicious intent in the case. He took a conscious risk, knowing his girlfriend could die, when he hit her in the head with a board.

According to the judge, the fact that he then set a noose around her neck using straps from a toy shows that he was unaware of the effects of the blow.

The judge believed as well that it was not a case of a planned murder, which played a role in how the sentencing.

“That it happened quite quickly is very clear,” said Alvå.

The woman’s parents and her five children are each set to receive monetary damages equal to 50,000 kronor ($7,600). Both of the victim’s siblings and the two fathers of her four oldest children had also sought damages, but were not awarded any.

The prosecutor has requested a sentence of 10 years for the 31-year old, who confessed that he’d killed his girlfriend and then hid the body.

He asserted that there wasn’t any direct motive in the case, but rather that the 31-year old took a known risk when he committed the violent act against his girlfriend and that in the heat of the moment, the suspect was unaware of what the exact consequences of the act might be.

Defence attorney Stig Brunnström believed that it was not clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the woman died of the blow to the head, followed by strangulation, as the prosecutor asserted.

Brunnström wanted the suspect to be tried for manslaughter or aggravated manslaughter.

'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast.

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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