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CRIME

Prominent local politician held in revenge murder plot

Battal Batti, a prominent local Social Democratic politician from Sandvik in east central Sweden, was remanded in custody on Sunday on suspicions of plotting an attempted murder and interference in a judicial matter, according to local media.

Published: 23 June 2008 08:47 CEST

Batti is being held for probable cause, which is a higher degree of suspicion.

He is suspected of having ordered his 26-year-old nephew to stab two men in early May in order to settle a dispute with another family, reports the Gefle Dagblad (GD) newspaper.

The suspicions against Batti came to light last Thursday during questioning in a district court where his nephew, along with two other of Batti’s relatives, have been charged with attempted murder.

At the conclusion of the hearing, chief prosecutor Mikael Hammarstrand decided that the politician should be arrested.

Batti denies any wrongdoing, but Hammarstrand said the politician’s behaviour during initial questioning contributed to the decision to keep him in custody.

“Battal Batti doesn’t give a good impression. He is unfocused and would rather talk about something other than what I want to talk about. He has difficulty explaining why a person so close to him would lie,” Hammarstrand said to GD.

Hammarstrand added that there may be technical evidence linking Batti to the crime which he feared the politician might destroy were he to remain free.

The prosecutor refused to elaborate on what the evidence might be, however.

Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

The demonstration, which was organised by the Left Party and the Green Party together with Expo, an anti-extremist magazine, was held outside the Moment theatre, where masked assailants attacked a lecture organised by the two parties on Wednesday.

In the attack, the assailants – described as Nazis by Expo – let off smoke grenades and assaulted several people, three of whom were hospitalised.

“Let’s say it how it is: this was a terror attack and that is something we can never accept,” said Amanda Lind, who is expected to be voted in as the joint leader of the Green Party on Sunday.

She said that those who had attended the lecture had hoped to swap ideas about how to combat racism.

“Instead they had to experience smoke bombs, assault and were forced to think ‘have they got weapons’?. The goal of this attack was to use violence to generate fear and silence people,” she said.

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

More than a thousand people gathered to protest the attack on a theatre in Gubbängen, Stockholm. Photo: Oscar Olsson/TT

Nooshi Dadgostar, leader of the Left Party, said that that society needed to stand up against this type of extreme-right violence.

“We’re here today to show that which should be obvious: we will not give up, we will stand up for ourselves, and we shall never be silenced by racist violence,” said said.

Sofia Zwahlen, one of the protesters at the demonstration, told the DN newspaper that it felt positive that so many had turned up to show their opposition to the attacks.

“It feels extremely good that there’s been this reaction, that we are coming together. I’m always a little worried about going to this sort of demonstration. But this feels safe.”

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