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Six in Malmö court after big drugs haul

Six people will appear before in Malmö court Thursday after they were detained at the weekend for bringing narcotics into Sweden.

Published: 24 May 2006 10:25 CEST

Swedish customs and police confiscated a large amount of drugs from the group after working together with law enforcement officials in seven other European countries.

Police had been monitoring the group for some time and knew the shipment was crossing into Sweden. Seven were ordered to be detained by a court on Sunday, but one was released due to lack of evidence.

The six in custody have roots in the former Yugoslavia. Sweden worked with officials in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Denmark to make the arrests, TT said.

“It is seldom that cooperation works as well as it has this time,” said Karl Gunnheden, spokesman for Swedish customs. “We have followed this group for several months.”

Police did not comment on the type and amount of drugs confiscated or on which charges the suspects will face in court, TT said.

Sweden's 'snippa' rape case to go to the High Court

Attorney General Petra Lundh criticised the appeals court for “a number of serious miscarriages of justice” in the way it dealt with the case.

The man had been sentenced to three years imprisonment in 2021 after the district court heard how he, in the prosecutor’s words, had “by sticking his hand inside the plaintiff’s shorts and underwear, holding his hand on the the girl’s ‘snippa’ and having a finger inside her ‘snippa’, performed a sexual act” on her.

The girl’s testimony was found to be credible, in part because she had told her mother about the incident on their way home.

But in February this year, the appeals court threw out the conviction, arguing that it was unclear what the girl means by the word snippa, a word taught to Swedish children to refer to female genitalia.

Despite agreeing with the district court that the man had touched the girl between her legs and inserted his finger into her snippa, the court found that it could not be determined whether the girl was referring to her vulva or to her vagina.

If the man had inserted his finger into her vagina, that would have met the standard to be classified as rape. Because the girl said that his finger was “far in”, but could not state exactly how far, the appeals court found that it could not establish beyond doubt that the man had inserted his finger in her vagina and not her the vulva.

Because no lower-grade charges, such as sexual abuse or molestation, had been filed against the man, the appeals court could not consider other offences.

This week, the Attorney General lodged a complaint with the Supreme Court against the appeal court’s decision. Now the Swedish Supreme Court has given the appeals court until April 12 to explain its decision-making in the case.

The Supreme Court has not decided whether it will hear an appeal against the decision to clear the man of rape charges.

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