SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Swedish rapper awaits hearing on murder charges in Los Angeles

A Los Angeles court on Monday extended the detention order for a 34-year-old Swedish hip hop artist who has been held on murder charges since November.

A preliminary hearing for David Jassy, also known by his stage name Dave Monopoly, is scheduled to take place in early March.

“Nothing has changed with the conditions of my client’s detention. But the prosecutor gave me the autopsy report today and now I’ll sit down and go through it before the preliminary hearing,” said Jassy’s lawyer Donald Etra to the TT news agency.

Jassy was arrested on November 24th following the death of 55-year-old John Osnes, a respected jazz pianist and advocate for pedestrians’ rights.

According to prosecutors, Osnes hit the hood of Jassy’s car at a crosswalk in Hollywood, at which point Jassy got out of the vehicle and proceeded to beat Jassy to the ground.

Jassy then got back into his vehicle, a large SUV, and ran over Osnes as he fled the scene.

Osnes later died from his injuries.

Jassy was remanded in custody on murder charges on December 17th.

Monday’s hearing to extend the detention order was routine, according to Nina Ersman, Sweden’s consul general in Los Angeles.

Etra had previously attempted to get the judge to lower Jassy’s bail from $1 million to between $100,000 and $250,000. But the judge denied the request, noting that Jassy was a flight risk on account of his Swedish citizenship, and family ties in Italy and Gambia, according to the LA Times newspaper.

CRIME

Stockholm court fines Greta Thunberg over parliament climate protest

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was handed a fine for disobeying police orders after blocking access to Sweden's parliament during a protest.

Stockholm court fines Greta Thunberg over parliament climate protest

Police removed Thunberg on March 12th and 14th after she refused to leave the main entrance, where she was protesting with a small group of activists for several days. MPs could still access the building via secondary entrances.

The court said it fined the activist 6,000 Swedish kronor ($551) and ordered her to pay 1,000 kronor in damages and interest.

Thunberg denied the charges of two counts of civil disobedience, according to an AFP journalist at the hearing.

Asked by the judge why she had not obeyed police orders, she replied: “Because there was a (climate) emergency and there still is. And in an emergency, we all have a duty to act.”

“The current laws protect the extractive industries instead of protecting people and the planet, which is what I believe should be the case,” she said as she left the courtroom.

Thunberg has been fined twice before in Sweden, in July and October 2023, for civil disobedience during similar protests.

In February, a London judge dropped charges against her for disturbing the peace during a demonstration against the oil industry in October in the British capital.

SHOW COMMENTS