Swedish teenager gets life in prison for killing two teachers
STOCKHOLM: A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced an 18-year-old student to life in prison for killing two teachers with an ax in March, believed to be the youngest person to receive the sentence in Sweden’s modern history.
The young man was arrested shortly after the attack at Malmö Latinskola, a creative arts high school, which has over 1,000 students in Sweden’s third largest city Malmö in southern Sweden.
“These are two very brutal murders where the victims suffered greatly and experienced severe fear of death,” Judge Johan Kvart said in a statement, adding that the teenager’s actions could not be seen as anything other than “particularly reckless.”
The sentence comes after the country changed a law under which young offenders used to receive lighter sentences for serious crimes, and legal sources said the student is believed to be the youngest person sentenced to life in Sweden’s modern history.
The court said it had been unable to establish a clear motive.
The young man admitted the actions and told the court he felt there was no place in society for him, but said he expected to die in the attack.
A psychiatric evaluation found the man to be on the autism spectrum, but according to the court there was no indication that he suffered from a “serious psychiatric disorder”.
However, the defendant’s lawyer, Anders Elison, had argued for a lighter sentence because of his client’s psychiatric problems.
He told local media that he would appeal the verdict.
A life sentence in Sweden technically has no end date, but after 10 years the prisoner can apply to have his sentence converted to a certain prison sentence, which is often granted — which in practice means that the life sentence is 16 years on average, according to Sweden’s penitentiary service. – AFP