One person has already been convicted after the Easter riots. The trial is now beginning in Örebro, where four people are being prosecuted for the events in Sveaparken on Good Friday.
Today, Thursday, the main trial in Örebro District Court starts against four young men who are accused of gross blue-light sabotage, or alternatively violent riots during the so-called Easter riots.
It was during the Easter weekend that unrest broke out in several places as a result of Rasmus Paludans, party leader of the Danish right-wing extremist party Tight Course, planned Koran burning.
Paludan visited – or planned to visit – Örebro, Linköping, Norrköping, Landskrona, Malmö and the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, something that was followed by violent riots with vandalism and violence mainly directed at the police. More than a hundred police officers were injured in connection with the riots.
Extended violence
The four men who are accused in Örebro were arrested on May 2 after the events in Sveaparken. The men could be identified on video footage.
According to the lawsuit, all deny the crime.
The men must together and in agreement with other, unknown, perpetrators, among other things, have attacked the police with violence and threats of violence and damaged both police vehicles and police dogs.
“I consider the crime to be serious because it was a matter of extensive and prolonged violence against the police who were in place to protect a constitutional right,” Chief Prosecutor Per-Erik Rinsell said earlier in a press release.
The prosecutor demands that three of the men be deported from Sweden and banned from returning.
Convicted
However, this is not the first trial related to the events of Easter. Just over a month after the riots, the first verdict was handed down in Solna District Court.
A man in his 30s was sentenced to six months in prison for violent rioting and attempted violence against an official during the riots in Rinkeby.
According to Jonas Hysing, National Commander-in-Chief at the police, the investigation of the Easter riots is well under way.
“We currently have 100 people identified as suspected of crime and up to 200 more will be identified and investigated for crime,” he said in a press release in late May.
On Tuesday, the police announced that they had arrested four more people in Örebro. This means that a total of 15 people have been detained on suspicion of gross sabotage against blue light activities in the city.
Facts
Blue light sabotage
Sabotage against blue light activities may involve attacking or otherwise disturbing the police, rescue services or ambulance personnel, making it more difficult or obstructing emergency activities or law enforcement activities.
If the crime is serious, it can lead to imprisonment for a certain period, a minimum of two and a maximum of eighteen years, or for life.
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