STOCKHOLM: Five men arrested in Sweden over the killing of Salwan Momika, who repeatedly burned copies of the Qur’an in 2023, have been dismissed as suspects, a prosecutor said on Friday.
Momika, a 38-year-old Iraqi Christian whose actions sparked outrage in several Muslim countries, was shot on January 29 in an apartment in Sodertalje, south of Stockholm. He died soon after in hospital.
Momika was killed just hours before a Stockholm court was due to rule whether he and co-defendant Salwan Najem were guilty of inciting ethnic hatred.
According to daily Aftonbladet, police had placed Momika in a secret location ahead of the verdict for his protection and he was streaming an address live on TikTok when intruders burst in.
Five men were arrested just hours after the shooting but were all released two days later.
They were formally dismissed as suspects on Friday.
“We have a fairly good idea of how events unfolded but no-one is currently in custody or a formal suspect,” prosecutor Rasmus Oman said.
“We are working broadly and I can’t go into which leads we are following,” he added.
After Momika’s murder, the Stockholm court postponed its ruling for several days.
It ultimately convicted 50-year-old Najem, also of Iraqi origin, of inciting ethnic hatred during four Qur’an burnings in 2023.
No ruling was pronounced for Momika.
Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries were strained by the pair’s actions.
Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion.
In August 2023, Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of one to five, saying the Qur’an burnings had made the country a “prioritized target.”
Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch called Momika’s murder “a threat to our free democracy,” while Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said there was “a risk that there is also a link to a foreign power.”
Five suspects dismissed over Qur’an burner’s murder in Sweden
https://arab.news/v3e4h
Five suspects dismissed over Qur’an burner’s murder in Sweden
- Salwan Momika was shot on January 29 in an apartment in Sodertalje, south of Stockholm
- Five men were arrested just hours after the shooting but were all released two days later
Protesters try to attack driver after truck speeds through anti-Iran demonstration in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with its side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.
The police department confirmed its officers were on the scene but didn’t immediately say if anyone was arrested.
Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Several hundred people had gathered Sunday afternoon in the Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. The LA police department eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still at the scene, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
