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ARBOGA MURDER TRIAL

CRIME

Suspect’s friend: ‘There was no baby’

A friend of child murder suspect Christine Schürrer testified on Monday that he did not believe the 32-year-old German woman had given birth to a child last September as she has claimed.

Schürrer’s friend said he was first introduced to the suspect in spring of last year. The pair continued to meet up sporadically during the summer.

Testifying in court on the seventh day of the trial, Schürrer’s friend said he had no recollection of the alleged pregnancy, which has also been called into question by a number of other witnesses. He said he did not believe she was close to giving birth to a child at this stage last year.

“I doubt it because as far as I remember she wasn’t pregnant. If she gave birth to the child in September it would have been visible,” said Schürrer’s friend when questioned by prosecutor Johan Fahlander.

The suspect claims that she had a child fathered by her ex-boyfriend Torgny Hellberg.

It was Hellberg who discovered the bloodied bodies of his girlfriend Emma Jangestig and her two toddlers, Saga and Max, on the floor of the home they shared in Arboga in March of this year.

Several months after their break up, Schürrer sent a letter to Hellberg explaining that she had given birth to his child and given it up for adoption.

Schürrer’s friend also called into question another aspect of her testimony. He said he was not aware that she had a special interest in Swedish history and had never spoken of visiting ancient Swedish monuments, which Schürrer has said was her reason for visiting Arboga on the day of the murders.

“The topics we spoke mostly about were football and music,” he told the court.

On March 17th, the day of the murders, Schürrer borrowed 1,000 kronor ($156) from her friend. She picked up the money from his place of work but did not say that she planned travelling to Arboga.

Earlier on Monday, a number of Emma Jangestig’s neighbours testified that they had seen a person behaving strangely outside her house and on her driveway on the day of the attacks. The person in question was wearing a large hood and has not been identified by any of the witnesses as Christine Schürrer.

The trial is set to continue in Tuesday when more of Schürrer’s friends will be called as witnesses.

STRIKES

Swedish appeals court throws out Tesla licence plate complaint

A Swedish appeals court rejected Tesla's attempt to force the Transport Agency to provide them with licence plates during an ongoing strike.

Swedish appeals court throws out Tesla licence plate complaint

The Göta Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the district court to throw out a request by US car manufacturer Tesla to force the Swedish Transport Agency to provide them with licence plates, on the grounds that a general court does not have jurisdiction in this case.

The district court and court of appeal argued that Tesla should instead have taken its complaint to an administrative court (förvaltningsdomstol) rather than a general court (allmän domstol).

According to the rules regulating the Transport Agency’s role in issuing licence plates in Sweden, their decisions should be appealed to an administrative court – a separate part of the court system which tries cases involving a Swedish public authority, rather than criminal cases or disputes between individuals which are tried by the general courts.

The dispute arose after postal service Postnord, in solidarity with a major strike by the Swedish metalworkers’ union, refused to deliver licence plates to Tesla, and the Transport Agency argued it wasn’t their responsibility to get the plates to Tesla in some other way.

The strike against Tesla has been going on for almost seven months.

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