STOCKHOLM: An Iraqi refugee in Sweden who repeatedly burned the Quran in 2023, sparking outrage in Muslim nations, has been shot lifeless south of Stockholm, investigators mentioned on Thursday (Jan 30), with Sweden’s prime minister suggesting “a international energy” might need been concerned.
Prosecutor Rasmus Oman confirmed to AFP that an investigation had been opened into the homicide of 38-year-old Salwan Momika and that 5 individuals had been arrested.
“We’re within the very early levels … there’s quite a lot of data gathering. 5 individuals have been detained suspected of involvement within the crime,” Oman mentioned.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson advised reporters at a press convention: “I can assure that the safety providers are deeply concerned on this as a result of there may be clearly a threat that there’s additionally a hyperlink to international energy.”
A Stockholm court docket had been as a result of rule Thursday whether or not Momika, a Christian Iraqi, was responsible of inciting ethnic hatred however mentioned it had postponed its ruling till Feb 3 because of his loss of life.
Police responded late Wednesday to a name a couple of taking pictures in an residence constructing within the metropolis of Sodertalje, the place Momika lived.
There they discovered a person who had been shot, and who later died in hospital, a police assertion mentioned.
A number of media retailers reported that the taking pictures could have been broadcast dwell on social media.
The Aftonbladet newspaper mentioned the attacker was capable of achieve entry into the constructing by way of the roof.
In August, Momika and a fellow protester Salwan Najem have been charged with “agitation towards an ethnic group” on 4 events in the summertime of 2023.
Based on the cost sheet, the 2 desecrated the Quran, together with burning it, whereas making derogatory remarks about Muslims – on one event outdoors a Stockholm mosque.
“I am subsequent on the checklist,” Najem wrote on X after Momika’s loss of life, telling Swedish media that he had obtained loss of life threats.
Relations between Sweden and several other Center Jap nations have been strained by the pair’s protests.
Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, beginning fires inside the compound on the second event.
In August of that 12 months, Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo raised its menace degree to 4 on a scale of 5 after the Quran burnings had made the nation a “prioritised goal”.
The Swedish authorities condemned the desecrations whereas noting the nation’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech and meeting legal guidelines.
“DON’T WANT TO HARM” SWEDEN
Chatting with Aftonbladet in April 2023, Momika mentioned he by no means meant his Quran burnings to trigger any hassle in Sweden, the place he had lived since 2018.
“I do not wish to hurt this nation that obtained me and preserved my dignity,” he mentioned.
In October 2023, the Swedish Migration Company revoked his residency allow, citing false data in his unique utility, however he was granted a brief one because it mentioned there was an “obstacle to enforcement” of a deportation to Iraq.
The month earlier than, Iraq had requested his extradition over one of many Quran burnings.
In March 2024, Momika left Sweden to hunt asylum in Norway, telling AFP that Sweden’s freedom of expression and safety of human rights was “an enormous lie”.
Norway deported him again to Sweden a number of weeks later.
Earlier than arriving in Sweden, Momika’s social media accounts inform a narrative of an erratic political profession in Iraq.
It included hyperlinks to a Christian armed faction in the course of the struggle towards the Islamic State group, the creation of an obscure Syriac political occasion, rivalries with influential Christian paramilitaries and a short arrest.
He additionally joined the huge anti-corruption protests that gripped Iraq in late 2019, which have been met with a crackdown that killed over 600 individuals nationwide.
In October 2023, a Swedish court docket convicted one other man of inciting ethnic hatred with a 2020 Quran burning, the primary time the nation’s court docket system had tried the cost for desecrating Islam’s holy e book.
Prosecutors have beforehand mentioned that beneath Swedish regulation, the burning of a Quran will be seen as a critique of the e book and the faith, and thus be protected beneath free speech.
Nonetheless, relying on the context and statements made on the time, it may also be thought-about “agitation towards an ethnic group”.
