Koran Burner Shot Dead In Sweden, Five Arrested

A man who repeatedly burnt the Koran in 2023 in Sweden, sparking outrage in Muslim countries, has been shot dead south of Stockholm, investigators said Thursday, adding that five people had been arrested.

Prosecutor Rasmus Oman confirmed to AFP that an investigation had been opened into the murder of 38-year-old Salwan Momika.

"We're in the very early stages ... there's a lot of information gathering. Five people have been detained suspected of involvement in the crime," he said.

A Stockholm court had been due to rule Thursday whether Momika, a Christian Iraqi, was guilty of inciting ethnic hatred but said it had postponed its ruling until February 3 as a result of his death.

Police responded late Wednesday to a call about a shooting in an apartment building in the city of Sodertalje, where Momika lived.

They found a man who had been "hit by shots and the man was taken to hospital", a police statement said, adding that he later died.

Several media outlets reported that the shooting may have been broadcast live on social media.

Tabloid Aftonbladet said the attacker was able to gain entry into the building through the roof.

In August, Momika along with co-protester Salwan Najem, was charged with "agitation against an ethnic group" on four occasions in the summer of 2023.

According to the charge sheet, the duo desecrated the Koran, including burning it, while making derogatory remarks about Muslims -- on one occasion outside a Stockholm mosque.

Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries were strained by the pair's protests.

Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion.

In August of that year, Sweden's intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of five after the Koran burnings had made the country a "prioritised target".

The Swedish government condemned the desecrations while noting the country's constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly laws.

Speaking to newspaper Aftonbladet in April 2023, Momika stressed that he never intended his Koran burnings to cause Sweden any trouble.

"I don't want to harm this country that received me and preserved my dignity," he said.

Momika had lived in Sweden since 2018.

In October 2023, the Swedish Migration Agency revoked his residency permit, citing false information in his original application, but he was granted a temporary one as it said there was an "impediment to enforcement" of a deportation to Iraq.

The month before, Iraq had requested his extradition over one of the Koran burnings.

In March 2024, Momika left Sweden to seek asylum in Norway, telling AFP that Sweden's freedom of expression and protection of human rights was "a big lie."

Norway deported him back to Sweden several weeks later.

Before arriving in Sweden in 2018, Momika's social media accounts tell a story of an erratic political career in Iraq.

It included links to a Christian armed faction during the fight against the Islamic State group, the creation of an obscure Syriac political party, rivalries with influential Christian paramilitaries and a brief arrest.

He also joined the massive anti-corruption protests that gripped Iraq in late 2019, which were met with a crackdown that killed over 600 people nationwide.

In October 2023, a Swedish court convicted another man of inciting ethnic hatred with a 2020 Koran burning, the first time the country's court system had tried the charge for desecrating Islam's holy book.

Prosecutors have previously said that under Swedish law, the burning of a Koran can be seen as a critique of the book and the religion, and thus be protected under free speech.

However, depending on the context and statements made at the time, it can also be considered "agitation against an ethnic group."