Fifty kilometres from the Swedish port city of Malmö, journalists met with a young man who wishes to remain anonymous.
He alleges that he started out at the age of 14 as a drug trafficker, but these days he carries out a variety of orders like planting explosions or committing shootings.
Ads are placed on encrypted messaging platforms. He claims to earn an average of €7,000 a month.
“To blow up a door in Malmö costs €3,000. Then to kill someone it’s €80,000 in Malmö, Stockholm it’s €50,000,” he said.
“I’ve never killed, but I’ve hurt people.”
As the violence becomes more widespread, criminals are turning to minors, who face juvenile justice rather than life sentences in the adult system, for contract killings.
In the first half of this year, local media reported that the number of suspects under the age of 15 involved in murder was nearly four times higher than last year.
After winning national elections two years ago, the new centre-right government took over a country so violent that only Albania and Montenegro are ahead of it in the rankings of gun deaths per capita within Europe.
To combat the shootings linked to organised crime and shattering the previously idyllic image associated with the country, Sweden has taken steps to rectify the situation.
In early October, the Swedish government proposed a law allowing anonymous testimonies to break the code of silence within gangs.
Responding to criticism that this proposal would be a violation of the rule of law which holds that the accused has the right to know who they must defend themselves against, the Swedish government held its position.
They said anonymous testimony would only be allowed in exceptional cases, at the court’s discretion and for crimes punishable by at least two years in prison.
There must also be a tangible risk that the witnesses or their relatives could be victims of a serious crime as a consequence of their testimony.
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Source link : https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/10/15/swedens-homicide-rate-linked-to-gang-warfare-is-one-of-the-highest-in-europe
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Publish date : 2024-10-15 14:39:00
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