The Swedish Security Service is involved, according to information provided to Expressen.
– In general terms, we have close cooperation with the police. But when it comes to this particular operation, it is a police matter, says Gabriel Wernstedt, press spokesman for Säpo.
During the night, a major police operation was underway in the area. Pictures from the district show police with reinforcement weapons.
Salwan Momika, 38, became a name during Sweden’s NATO process when he repeatedly burned Korans.
Massive protests erupted in Muslim countries, which plunged Sweden into a diplomatic crisis, with a heightened terror threat level as a result.
In Iraq, the city of al-Kufa offered a reward of two million dollars and a Koran made of two kilos of gold to whoever killed him. The government in Baghdad requested his extradition.
Salwan Momika came to Sweden in the spring of 2018. In the fall of 2023, his temporary residence permit was revoked and he tried to apply for asylum in Norway – but was soon back in Sweden and last year received a one-year residence permit. The Migration Board considered that he risked torture if he were to return to his home country of Iraq.
Together with his partner Salwan Najem, he was charged in August 2024 with four counts of incitement against an ethnic group.
The verdict will be handed down today at 11 a.m.
Salwan Najem was visited by police during the night of Thursday, he tells Expressen.
– They told him that Salwan Momika had been shot and that he is dead, says Salwan Najem.
The police held a short interrogation. Among other things, they asked when he last met Momika, which was during the trial for incitement against an ethnic group.
– Then we joked with each other. When we were done I told him “we might get life, you and I”, and we laughed, says Salwan Najem.
The evidence in the case consists largely of video footage from the burnings.
In connection with the indictment, Salwan Momika told Expressen that he was surprised - but not scared.
- I chose Sweden because I knew that it is a country where law and order are applied equally to everyone. I know that Sweden and Swedish society cherish free thought and freedom for individuals to criticize and question religions.
So the Iraqi ex-para military of Imam Ali Brigades comes to europe in 2017, and sweden in 2021. Not granted permanent residence nor swedish citizenship because he lied in his demands. His visa was due 2024 but temporaily prolonged during the investigation about his lies.
He was convicted for menacing a man with a knife, burned qurans and cosied up with the extreme right wing party SD, saying he wanted into politics.
Seems like a real piece of work.
There were a 2 million dollar bounty on his head, guess someone got rich.
Yeah, he doesn’t seem to have been very nice.
Still, don’t go shooting people because of religion.
In Islam, It’s not about what you do to it, it’s about who you are
Edit: speaking from experience, as an Exmuslim
I don’t really undestand what that means, which might be me just being dense
Removed by mod
I’m usually not defending religion, but let’s not pretend that this is only a problem in Islam.
Religion is cancer, and Islam might be a little more aggressive cancer at the moment, but they’re all bad.
To me this looks like city (state?) sponsored terrorism, seeing how a city put a bounty on him and Iraq not putting a stop to it.
