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Couple remanded for murder of 8-year-old girl

The couple suspected of killing an 8-year-old girl in southern Sweden on Walpurgis night (Valborg) are being remanded in custody suspected of probable cause for murder.

Published: 3 May 2014 09:59 CEST

Couple remanded for murder of 8-year-old girl

Tributes outside the apartment complex in Karlskrona where an 8-year-old girl was found dead on Walpurgis night. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Police had arrested the pair on Thursday morning after the girl was found dead in an apartment in Karlskrona. The man (31) and woman (30) are not the girl's parents, who were overseas at the time.

"We have worked with the investigation in order to obtain sufficient material for the prosecutor to make a remand request and to be permitted to detain the individuals," Lotta Hansson, press spokesperson of the Blekinge police, told the Expressen newspaper.

The girl, referred to as Yara by Swedish media, had been residing in Sweden since February 2013. Her parents were in Gaza when they heard the news their daughter was dead on Facebook.

"It's come as a total shock. It is terrible," the girl's father was quoted as telling Expressen.

He added; "We can't believe that this is true, we do not know what to believe. Now we need to wait for the investigation in Sweden in order to find out what happened."

The girl's death has stunned Karlskrona, with floral tributes left outside her school and where she lived. It has since emerged that social services were alerted to the girl's situation with her guardians over a year ago.

When the couple suspected of murder were arrested, police pointed out they were not the girl's parents but had a "certain relationship" with her. It is understood that the 31-year old man is related to the victim and the arrested pair were, in fact, her guardians in Sweden.

Since the arrests police have declined to reveal details about the nature of the crime.

Prosecutor Pernilla Åström said that the arrested pair were being remanded on probable cause as they could potentially destroy evidence or impede the investigation. She added there was also the possibility they could continue carrying out criminal activities.

The pair will be formally remanded in Kristianstad on Saturday afternoon, with negotiations on the details of their arrest to take place on Sunday at the police station.

The Local/pr

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'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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