Seven months ago, the woman in her 60s was found dead in her villa in the Uppsala district of Brillinge. Emergency personnel on the scene initially thought it was a cardiac arrest, until they saw the bullet hole in the chest.
When it dawned on the police who she was – the mother of gang leader Ismail “Strawberry” Abdo, who had clashed with Foxtrot leader Rawa Majid shortly before the murder – reinforcements were called after strong suspicions of retaliation.
Violence wave in Uppsala
A person is detained for involvement in the murder at Mogos Tesfemariam in Uppsala
The neighbor heard three shots: “Now I have to talk to the children”
To murder someone’s mother in cold blood was described as a declaration of war and more crimes against relatives followed in the escalated spiral of violence.
Five suspects
Today, the verdict comes against the five people suspected of involvement in the murder, two of whom – a 20-year-old man and a now 16-year-old boy – are considered to have carried out the actual shooting.
The two suspected perpetrators were arrested the day after the shooting at a hotel in central Uppsala following a tip-off to the police that they had traveled to Uppsala before the crime to commit a serious crime.
Want to see life in prison
During the trial, which was conducted in the security room of the Attunda district court, prosecutor Erik Grönvall demanded six years in prison for the 16-year-old and life imprisonment for the 20-year-old, who he believes fired the fatal shot.
However, he believes that even the younger of them has been so involved and aware that he too should be sentenced to prison for what he calls an “assassination of an innocent woman”.
– It is unusual for people under the age of 18 to be sentenced to prison in Sweden. But it happens, and this case is one such case where I believe it should happen, said prosecutor Erik Grönvall to SVT at the time.
Lawyers critical
The defense attorneys for the two murder suspects have been critical of the prosecutor’s evidence and sentencing requests. They believe that the sequence of events has not been sufficiently investigated – who shot or who was at the scene.
The 20-year-old’s lawyer, Viktor Isero, said during his plea that it cannot be ruled out that a third, outsider, shot the woman.
In the clip above: This is how the murder of the woman is alleged to have happened.