The knife crime in Almedalen: Judgment against Theodor Engström

The sentence was announced on Tuesday, on the day five months after the murder of the psychiatric coordinator Ing-Marie Wieselgren and the plans to murder the Center leader Annie Lööf.

A critical issue that the court needs to decide on is whether the crimes should be seen as terrorist crimes or not.

In order for it to be assessed as a terrorist crime, the act must have been capable of seriously harming Sweden and must have been committed with the aim of causing all or parts of the population to feel serious fear.

Attack on Donner’s place

Another important question is whether Theodor Engström can be sentenced for preparation for a terrorist crime directed against Center leader Annie Lööf.

Theodor Engström is judged to have a serious mental disorder and the Swedish Forensic Medicine Agency believes that there are medical prerequisites for him to receive forensic psychiatric care. But there is no longer an absolute prison ban and prosecutors have sought a life sentence.

It was on July 6 during the politicians’ week in Almedalen that the psychiatric coordinator Ing-Marie Wieselgren was attacked with a knife at Donner’s place in central Visby.

Wieselgren later died of his injuries. Shortly after the crime, the suspected perpetrator, Theodor Engström, was arrested.

Lööf was a target

A week later, the investigation was taken over by Säpo and the National Prosecutor’s Office’s unit for security cases. The crime classification thus becomes terrorist crime through murder and preparation for terrorist crime through preparation for murder.

During the late summer, the prosecutor states that the Center Party’s party leader Annie Lööf was one of the targets of the attack. On the same day, she was to hold a press conference near the scene of the murder. It is the classification preparation for terrorist crime by preparation for murder that concerns Lööf.