Five suspects dismissed over Quran burner’s murder in Sweden

Stockholm – Five men arrested in Sweden over the killing of Salwan Momika, who repeatedly burned copies of the Quran in 2023, have been dismissed as suspects, a prosecutor said on March 21.

Momika, a 38-year-old Iraqi Christian whose actions sparked outrage in several Muslim countries, was shot on Jan 29 in an apartment in Sodertalje, south of Stockholm. He died soon after in hospital.

Momika was killed just hours before a Stockholm court was due to rule whether he and co-defendant Salwan Najem were guilty of inciting ethnic hatred.

According to Swedish daily Aftonbladet, police had placed Momika in a secret location ahead of the verdict for his protection and he was streaming an address live on TikTok when intruders burst in.

Five men were arrested just hours after the shooting, but were all released two days later.

They were formally dismissed as suspects on March 21.

“We have a fairly good idea of how events unfolded but no one is currently in custody or a formal suspect,” prosecutor Rasmus Oman said.

“We are working broadly and I can’t go into which leads we are following,” he added.

After Momika’s murder, the Stockholm court postponed its ruling for several days.

It ultimately convicted 50-year-old Najem, also of Iraqi origin, of inciting ethnic hatred during four Quran burnings in 2023.

No ruling was pronounced for Momika.

Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries were strained by the pair’s actions.

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

In August 2023, Swedish intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of one to five, saying the Quran burnings had made the country a “prioritised target”.

Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch called Momika’s murder “a threat to our free democracy”, while Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said there was “a risk that there is also a link to a foreign power”. AFP