Theodor Engström – this happened during the terror trial

VISBY. Annie Lööf’s strong testimony.

Theodor Engström’s outburst which forced the trial to a sudden interruption.

So were the first two eventful court days in Visby.

1. Prosecutor’s freezing surveillance video

On Tuesday, the prosecutor showed a 25-minute film about Theodor Engström’s murder preparations.

It begins when Theodor Engström picks up a package at his local game store, on June 21.

The assistant hands out the package as if it contains something completely everyday. But the tall white box contains two swords and two double-edged knives.

On the afternoon of July 6, Theodor Engström is in Almedalen, armed with several of these weapons.

He searches for Ing-Marie Wieselgren, who has crystallized into his primary target.

The camera picks up when they both meet on a sidewalk. Theodor Engström rushes over, turns and follows Ing-Marie Wieselgren. 15 minutes later he has stabbed her to death.

2. Annie Lööf opened up

Annie Lööf told us that hate, threats and their consequences are something you rarely talk about in her position. Because it risks inspiring more.

– That’s why it feels a little strange today. Because it’s the first time you tell in depth what you feel and what you’ve been exposed to, said Annie Lööf.

Theodor Engström had reconnoitered in the Cathedral, where Annie Lööf was to participate in a Nicodemus talk at 10 pm, the evening of July 6.

Unaware of Engström’s previous plans, but aware that Ing-Marie Wieselgren had been hacked to death, Annie Lööf participated in the conversation. She said that today it is frightening to think that she could have been 20 centimeters from Theodor Engström, if his plans had taken a different path.

– Now it is actually the case that he was arrested. Had he not been, and gone to the Cathedral that evening… I have a bit of a hard time thinking about the consequences, actually, said Annie Lööf in a broken voice.

Annie Lööf spoke emotionally about questions her children asked.

“What are you going to do on Gotland?”

“Why did someone want to kill you?”

She was also visibly moved when she talked about Ing-Marie Wieselgren.

– A person like Ing-Marie Wieselgren doesn’t think when she goes to Almedalen that she won’t come back. It hit me very hard that an employed civil servant should suffer such a brutal crime. And it comes very close.

3. The ghost boy and the fairy boy

Then it was Theodor Engström’s turn to be heard in court.

Initially it went well. The 33-year-old spoke with a loud and clear voice.

– To begin with, I must state the conditions for what I am going to sit here and say. I am in a very bad state of health. Before the crime in Visby, I spent my life in a ghost cage, for ten years in the parents’ home, with almost no contact with anyone outside the parents’ home.

Theodor Engström said he never entered adulthood.

Instead, he became a “ghost boy”. Until this year’s Almedal Week when, fulfilled by the deed he was about to perform, he became a “fairytale boy” who was guided by higher powers.

– It was a fairytale boy’s last adventure in Visby, said Theodor Engström.

He has said in questioning that there were hundreds of “legitimate targets” in Almedalen. But on July 6, he had targeted three people:

Annie Lööf, as a representative of politics. SVT’s CEO Hanna Stjärne as a representative of the media, and Ing-Marie Wieselgren as a representative of Swedish psychiatry. It so happened that it was the latter that the attack was directed against.

– I saw Almedalen as the best possible place to fight back against the Swedish people as much as possible.

4. Engström’s outbreak

Theodor Engström was annoyed from the start that he had to answer “detail questions”, which he had already answered many times before.

The answer to his actions can be found in the eleven interrogations he has already done, said Engström.

Chamber prosecutor Henrik Olin tried to get answers to important and concrete questions for him.

Theodor Engström felt interrupted, and became increasingly angry.

– You are only asking about technicalities that do not matter, and this matters to me, said Theodor Engström.

The argument mainly revolved around the evidence that the prosecutor presented already on Tuesday – documents and pictures of Annie Lööf that Theodor Engström created and saved up to ten years ago. Mainly

– It’s about the fact that I just want to share my reality here. But I can’t do that, because I wrote this ten years ago.

Finally, Theodor Engström shouted at the prosecutor, and the lawman felt compelled to call a ten-minute break.

– Absolutely incredible! Fully rigged! shouted Theodor Engström when he was handcuffed and led out.

Afterwards, the lawyer said that “it locked” for Theodor Engström.

– With a person who is seriously mentally ill, you have to count on reactions that are not always adequate. But it’s not nice when it turns out like this, says Staffan Fredriksson.

5. Ing-Marie Wieselgren

Caught between the perpetrator’s actions and the political significance of the act, the murder risks ending up in obscurity.

Annie Lööf described the 64-year-old psychiatric coordinator Ing-Marie Wieselgren as a fantastic person, whom she wishes she had gotten to know better.

Lööf also expressed great respect for Wieselgren’s professional work, and appreciated her “Thoughts for the Day”, when Wieselgren participated in P1’s morning program.

Theodor Engström’s reasoning was unpleasant when he said he believed in reincarnation and that Wieselgren therefore “has not disappeared forever”. He also justified his act by seeing himself as a Ukrainian soldier, fighting back against a Russian soldier.

Finally, the prosecutor asked if Theodor Engström regrets what he did to Ing-Marie Wieselgren.

The answer was no.

Facts

Schedule of the trial

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