A total of nine murders and several attempted murders have been linked to the conflict between gang criminals in Malmö. Among other things, the murder of a mother with young children at Ribersborg in Malmö in August 2019 and the triple murder outside an internet cafe in the city in the summer of 2018.
One side consisted of several groups, which are said to have temporarily joined together to plan murder against a 25-year-old rival and the circle around him.
Eight get jail time
Fifteen men in the temporary “alliance” were indicted last year for extensive and long-running murder plots. According to the prosecutors, the goal has been to take over the drug trade in Skåne, but there are also revenge motives in the background.
Malmö District Court convicted 13 of them for crimes and now the Court of Appeal over Skåne largely upholds the sentence.
A total of eight men are sentenced to prison. The longest sentence is given to a 23-year-old man who is sentenced to seven years in prison for two counts of preparation for murder and aggravated weapons offences.
A 39-year-old man has his sentence increased by six months and is sentenced to two years in prison – for him, the Court of Appeal considers that the 39-year-old was sentenced to five years in prison in the summer of 2021 for serious drug trafficking. For the other six, the length of the sentence varies, from one year and four months up to four years in prison.
– The Court of Appeal has said that the penalty value for these crimes is taken more seriously in general than the district court has done. They do follow practice, but I think that there are still very low penalty values in general for a crime that we judge to be perhaps the most serious. Depriving the lives of other people, says prosecutor Helena Ljunggren and continues:
– It is probably difficult for the courts to step out and judge differently, but it is something that must be corrected simply by legislation.
Three people are acquitted
Just as in the district court, two men are fully acquitted of the criminal charge, but the Court of Appeal also acquits a man who has previously been sentenced to six months in prison for a case of preparation for murder.
All 15 men appealed the district court’s verdict, but four of them withdrew their appeal. The four were sentenced in the district court to imprisonment for a length that varied from one year and six months to four years and ten months.
A crucial piece of evidence in the case has consisted of messages the suspects sent to each other on the encrypted messaging service Encrochat, which was hacked by police.