Nine years for Zyklon B poisoning attempt

The 32-year-old Swedish man who tried four times to kill his girlfriend using Zyklon B pesticide was sentenced on Friday to nine years in prison for attempted murder.

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Prosecutors originally charged the man, who lives in Luleå in northern Sweden, with four counts of attempted murder.

They alleged that on four separate occasions between December 2008 and February 2009 he tried to poison his girlfriend using the Zyklon B pesticide, a cyanide-based chemical used by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

According to prosecutors, the 32-year-old ordered enough of the poison from a Czech manufacturer to kill 42,000 people.

In attempting to kill his girlfriend the man first placed cyanide in her porridge. In a second poisoning attempt, he poured a bottle of calcium-cyanide solution on her face when he thought she was sleeping, the Expressen newspaper reports.

He also planted Zyklon B in the woman’s house and in her car, but on each occasion she escaped without injury.

Ultimately, however, the Luleå District Court convicted the man on only one count of attempted murder: for the time he poured calcium cyanide in his girlfriend’s mouth and nose, subjecting her to 18 times the lethal dose of the deadly hydrogen cyanide gas which had built up in the bottle.

According to the court, the remaining three poisoning attempts were cases of attempted assault and aggravated assault, according to Expressen.

The 32-year-old was also convicted of raping his girlfriend.

In addition to the nine-year prison sentence, the man must also pay damages to his ex-girlfriend of 250,000 kronor ($33,600), about half of the amount she has requested.