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Four charged over ‘mistaken’ Malmö murder

Three women and one man were charged in Malmö for their suspected involvement in the killing of a 48-year-old man who was gunned down in broad daylight on January 3rd, apparently by mistake.

Published: 19 November 2012 14:30 CET

The victim, Charles Limerius, was shot dead on Kantatgatan in Malmö, just 20 metres from his front door in Malmö’s Lindängen neighbourhood.

In May, police went public with the theory that Limerius wasn’t the intended target for the shooting. A 54-year-old man with a lengthy criminal record lived at the same address as Limerius and could have been the person the killer had intended to shoot, according to the theory.

A 28-year-old man is charged with having carried out the murder after spending two months gathering information about the 54-year-old target.

According to the prosecutor, the 28-year-old was collecting intelligence about his intended victim’s looks, place of residence and the date when he was to be released from prison on probation, after which the would-be killer purchased a semi-automatic gun with a silencer.

In January, the 28-year-old thought he saw the 54-year-old outside of his house and shot him dead, with six shots hitting the victim in the head, chest and his right leg. However, it wasn’t the 54-year-old man he had shot, it was his 48-year-old neighbour Limerius who lived in the same building.

A 56-year-old woman and her 28-year-old daughter were also charged on Monday with aiding the preparation of murder. Police suspect them of having helped the man get access to information about the 54-year-old.

Earlier there were speculations that the two women ordered the killing to get revenge for the 1992 murder of the 28-year-old woman’s father, but this was not mentioned on the charge sheet.

A 51-year-old woman was charged with protecting a criminal as she was aware of the plans to have the 54-year-old murdered but did nothing to alert the police, according to the prosecutor.

All of the accused deny the allegations against them.

TT/The Local/rm

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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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