19-year-old received life imprisonment for gang murder in Stockholm

Police outside Stockholm district court. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT / NTB

A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a man of the same age in central Stockholm last autumn.

In Sweden, the authorities are now trying to crack down on the rampant gang crime and violence that is ravaging the country. Strict punishments must be part of the cure that is used.

An example of that was now seen in the form of a judgment from the Stockholm District Court on Thursday.

Here, a 19-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment for having shot and killed a man of the same age in central Stockholm last autumn.

NTB-TT reports on the case.

19-year-old Hamza Abo Karah is sentenced to life in prison for the murder, Swedish media reports.

It is a severe punishment for a young man, and is meant to be noticed.

An 18-year-old woman has also been sentenced to ten years in prison for complicity in the murder. A 17-year-old who was also charged with complicity has been acquitted

This was an ugly murder. But just such misdeeds are now dangerously common in Sweden, which is the basis for the authorities’ increasing concern.

The victim was shot several times in a street in Vasastan in Stockholm on 13 September. He was given first aid by passers-by, but later died in hospital.

According to the court, the background to the murder was an internal conflict in the criminal gang Foxtrot.

Incidentally, this is a group that has also started to establish itself in Norway, see article below.

It is an open question whether such severe punishments will make an impression in the relevant criminal circles. Ending up behind bars is often considered “part of life” for criminals.

It will be at least as crucial to see which realities turn out to lie behind a sentence of “life” imprisonment. Does it actually mean a lifetime, or does it mean a few years in prison, before one is out on probation or released through other arrangements?

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