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‘Media’ made man drill huge hole into neighbour’s flat

A Swedish man returned from an extended vacation to find a massive hole in his living room wall. Charges have now been filed against the man’s neighbour, who said the “media elite” made him do it.

Published: 18 September 2010 12:32 CEST

'Media' made man drill huge hole into neighbour's flat

It was back in April of this year when the 67-year-old man returned to his apartment in Nyköping in eastern Sweden and discovered that several items were out of place, the Aftonbladet newspaper reports.

The man then found a gaping hole in the 25 centimetre thick concrete wall separating his flat from that of his 55-year-old neighbour.

“When I went up to the hole I could see into my neighbour’s,” the 67-year-old later told police.

It didn’t long for the man to deduce that his neighbour was responsible for carving out the crawlspace, but he was surprised to learn that the 55-year-old had made almost nightly trips into the 67-year-old’s apartment while he was away.

The 55-year-old, who is now facing charges for violating the domicile of another, admitted to police that he made the hole, but claimed that did it at the behest of the “media elite”, who had controlled him for years.

In his police interrogation, the man spoke of a conspiracy called the “Consistory” and explained that he went into the 67-year-old’s apartment to look for clues by watching the Crime Channel on his neighbour’s television, according to the newspaper.

However, the 55-year-old denied that he used his nightly visits to steal the 10,000 kronor his neighbour claimed was missing from his apartment when he returned.

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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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