5 individuals arrested over homicide because the Swedish prime minister mentioned the taking pictures could possibly be linked to a international energy.
An Iraqi refugee in Sweden has been killed hours earlier than a courtroom ruling on his repeated burning of the Quran in anti-Islam demonstrations final yr.
Police introduced on Thursday that that they had made 5 arrests in reference to the homicide of 38-year-old Salwan Momika, who was reportedly shot in a home within the city of Sodertalje close to Stockholm yesterday.
“I can guarantee you that the safety providers are deeply concerned as a result of there’s clearly a danger that there’s a connection to a international energy,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson mentioned at a information convention.
Vice Prime Minister Ebba Busch condemned the homicide.
“It’s a risk to our free democracy. It have to be met with the complete power of our society,” she wrote on X.
The Stockholm District Courtroom, which had been set to rule Thursday on whether or not Momika and co-defendant Salwan Najem had been responsible of “agitation towards an ethnic or nationwide group”, mentioned that it had postponed its verdict to February 3 because of the previous’s loss of life.
In accordance with the cost sheet issued in August, the pair had desecrated the Quran, together with burning it, whereas making derogatory remarks about Muslims – on one event outdoors a Stockholm mosque.
Prosecutor Rasmus Oman confirmed that an investigation had been opened into the homicide of Momika. “We’re within the very early levels … there’s loads of info gathering,” he mentioned.
A number of media retailers reported that the taking pictures could have been broadcast stay on social media.
Police had responded late Wednesday to a name a couple of taking pictures in an house constructing the place Momika lived within the metropolis of Sodertalje, discovering a person who had been “hit by pictures”.
A video seen by information company Reuters confirmed police selecting up a cellphone and ending a livestream that seemed to be from Momika’s TikTok account.
Outrage
Sweden in 2023 raised its “terrorism” alert to the second-highest degree and warned of threats towards Swedes at residence and overseas after the Quran burnings outraged many Muslims all over the world.
Iraqi protesters reacted by storming the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, beginning fires throughout the compound on the second event.
Momika, who had lived in Sweden since 2018, was confronted with doable deportation in 2023 for allegedly giving false info on his residency software.
However Sweden’s migration company ended up granting him a brief residency allow after deciding he risked torture and inhumane therapy in Iraq.
In March 2024, Momika left Sweden to hunt asylum in Norway, saying that Sweden’s freedom of expression and safety of human rights was “an enormous lie”.
However Norway deported him again to Sweden a number of weeks later.
