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full screen Chatting between “Guerrilla Monkey” and the 16-year-old. “I’d rather not,” writes the 16-year-old. Photo: The police
Criminals in Denmark recruited “child soldiers” from Sweden in the summer’s wave of violence. An investigation into two teenagers who were drawn into a murder mission in Copenhagen gives a first insight into how it could happen.
– I did not dare to object, says one of the boys in questioning.
A large number of Swedish young people traveled to Denmark during the spring and summer to commit serious acts of violence on behalf of criminals.
Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard (S) described them as child soldiers – and the tone towards the neighbor to the north was somewhat harsh when, among other things, he urged Sweden to “clean up its mess” after several acts in a short time.
On Friday, the first trial begins in Sweden connected to the Danish wave of violence, where two 16-year-olds stand accused of preparing and aiding and abetting the preparation of murder.
Contact at Signal
The investigation shows that the one boy is contacted on Signal by an unidentified person who calls himself “Guerrilla Monkey”. The person asks him to find someone who can do a job – a violent crime – in Denmark.
The 16-year-old does not know for sure himself why he was contacted, he claims.
– Probably something has tipped him off and said that I can do such a thing, but I don’t want to, he says later in questioning with the police.
The 16-year-old writes to a number of other people and tries to get them to take on the assignment. He passes on the message from “Guerrilla Monkey” that 150,000 kroner is promised per murder.
“150 per skull. Free food free accommodation”, he writes to one person.
– I just wanted someone else to take it over so I didn’t have to do it, he says in questioning with the police.
The police are alerted
When he realizes that it won’t work, he goes home to his father, where he breaks down. He explains to the father that he has to “do something”, and that otherwise they could get into trouble.
– He said I should stay at home, but I said “no, what if someone comes here then”, says the 16-year-old in questioning.
The boy heads to the central station in Stockholm, where he will take the train to Malmö and from there travel on to Copenhagen according to instructions from “Guerrilla Monkey”. But the father calls a friend who in turn calls the police. The boy can then be arrested before he gets on the train.
He is now charged with preparation for murder, along with the other boy who is suspected of being an accessory.
Both deny wrongdoing, although the main defendant admits to parts of the course of events.
“He has complied with certain circumstances, but disputes responsibility because he has been under threat and thus has not acted with free will,” writes his defender Filippa Hjortzberg de Champs in a comment to TT.
FACTS Three suspects in murder plot
Three people will be put on trial on Friday at Södertörn District Court for the murder plans in Copenhagen this summer. Two 16-year-olds are charged with preparation for murder and aiding and abetting the preparation for murder, while the prosecutor brought a so-called evidentiary case against a 14-year-old girl.
The one 16-year-old has, according to the indictment, “together and in agreement with other unknown persons” taken on a murder mission in Denmark. He is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder, as he is said to have tried to persuade other people to undertake the mission instead.
The other 16-year-old must have helped, according to the indictment, among other things by paying for a train ticket to Malmö and transporting a bag with a change of clothes before the murder mission.
According to the prosecutor, the girl has sent money to the main defendant, the 16-year-old. She is said to have also planned to travel down to Malmö together with him to go on to Copenhagen where the murder was to be carried out.
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