Maja Hellman, 19, acquitted – Johanna Jansson, 20, has her sentence reduced.
Tove’s family is critical of the Court of Appeal’s verdict.
– The only thing we are at peace with is that someone has been held legally responsible for murdering Tove, says plaintiff’s attorney Uno Karlsson.
From the law’s strictest punishment, life imprisonment, to an acquittal of murder for Maja Hellman and a time-limited sentence of 16 years for Johanna Jansson.
Murdered Tove’s family are both surprised and disappointed at today’s verdict from the Göta Court of Appeal after the high-profile case in Vetlanda, they state through their assistant Uno Karlsson.
– We do not share the assessments made by the Court of Appeal, he says.
The Court of Appeal considered that Johanna Jansson had so-called intent of indifference when she strangled Tove to death. Which meant that she was not judged to have committed the act with the intent to kill but that she understood that there was a risk of that by taking the chokehold – and still chose to do it.
– We think it is incorrect. Our view is that there was a direct intent to kill. Furthermore, we believe that the sentencing is incorrect. For a murder and extremely serious violation of grave peace, very serious, they put it in 16 years. We consider that to be way too low, says Uno Karlsson.
“It’s been a terrible time”
The reason why the Court of Appeal acquitted Maja Hellman of involvement in the murder is that it was held that there was not enough evidence that she held down Tove’s arms when Tove tried to defend herself. Which Johanna Jansson stated that Maja Hellman did.
– Regarding the younger woman (Maja Hellman), we have been aware that the evidence was worse, but our opinion is that it is two people who murdered Tove. We base that partly on the older woman’s information (Johanna Jansson) but also on the circumstances that Tove, who was a young fit sports girl, would have resisted if she was conscious when the choke was taken. And that’s exactly what the older woman says she was. We believe that the lack of repulsive injuries indicates that there were two people. Namely one who held the neck and one who held the arms or hands.
How has this time been for the family?
– Everyone can imagine that it has been a terrible time. But I won’t go into more detail about how they measured. In normal cases, there is a legal end to the process in the Court of Appeal, but it cannot be ruled out that the case ends up in the Supreme Court, says Uno Karlsson, who has not taken a position on whether the verdict should be appealed.