Three siblings – two brothers and a sister – sit in the front row of the accused bench inside the security chamber of the Stockholm District Court. They have their attention directed at prosecutor Tobias Lindblom, slightly to the left in front of them.
NN took the life of the plaintiff by strangling and/or suffocating her in her residence, he reads from the indictment against one of the brothers who was married to the 27-year-old woman.
A row behind sits their mother, a 55-year-old woman from northern Syria who immigrated to Sweden over ten years ago with her family. An interpreter beside translates everything the prosecutor says.
Wanted to divorce
According to the indictment against a total of seven people, the 27-year-old was murdered when she wanted to divorce her husband, whom she had been separated from for several years.
In any case, part of the motive for the act has been to restore family honor, says Lindblom.
The two brothers are charged with murder, along with their mother who is alleged to have given directives about the murder. The sister and her husband are charged with aiding and abetting, and two more are suspected of protecting the perpetrator.
Key witness
The mother-in-law is also charged with attempting to persuade a man in Germany to murder her daughter-in-law. The man is to be heard during the trial and is seen as a key witness.
Of great importance is also the phone call with the 55-year-old that the man recorded, where she asks him to murder the woman. Parts of the conversation, which was conducted in Arabic, are played in court.
Is it your daughter-in-law? says the man according to the translation.
Yes, it is she who is to be punished, says the woman.
When it comes to honor, I am a person who values it extra highly, she continues.
The man, however, had no intention of committing a murder. He tried to warn the woman by contacting her mother. He did not, however, manage to reach her before she was found dead in her residence on September 17.
Violence and threats
The prosecutors also went through a long history of reports of violence and threats by the woman against her husband and his family.
She has stated in interrogations that she has been subjected to abuse several times, says prosecutor Maria Nilsson.
One of the sisters of the 27-year-old cried quietly several times when the woman's own pictures of injuries, bruises, and torn hair were shown in court.
The trial is planned to continue until June 11. All deny.
Marc Skogelin/TT
Facts: Seven accused
TT
Seven people are accused of the murder of the 27-year-old woman who was found dead in her residence in Eskilstuna on September 15, 2024.
Three people, two brothers and their mother, are accused of murder. One of the brothers who was married to the woman is the one who allegedly committed the murder. His brother participated in the mapping and reconnaissance of the woman in Eskilstuna and in the removal of evidence afterwards. The mother is alleged to have given "directives for the execution of the murder".
The mother is also accused of instigation to murder, suspected of having attempted to persuade another man to murder the woman sometime between September 5 and 15.
The husband's sister and brother-in-law are accused of aiding and abetting. According to the indictment, they have, among other things, helped with the surveillance of the woman before the murder, transported the husband in Eskilstuna, and removed evidence.
Two other people, a 45-year-old woman and a teenage girl, are also accused of gross protection of a perpetrator, suspected of having helped the husband to leave Sweden and of having removed evidence.
