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19-year-old gets ten years for Mora murder

A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to ten years for the murder of a 15-year-old girl in Mora last March.

Published: 19 June 2008 14:08 CEST

Mora District Court sentenced the man on Thursday and described his crime as “bestial and senseless”.

The man got to know his victim over the internet last winter. Telephone records indicate that the man and the girl had contact on several occasions up to and during the day of the murder.

They agreed to meet on the evening of February 15th. The man picked up the girl in his car not far from where she lived. He drove to a local building site with the intention of having sex with her.

However, things got out of control on the way. The man got the girl in a stranglehold and then killed her by smashing a stone to her head.

The man confessed to the teenager’s murder early on in the investigation.

The 19-year-old has also been ordered to pay 300,000 kronor ($49,400) in damages to the victim’s family.

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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