Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant who sparked huge protests by burning a Koran in Stockholm in 2023, was shot dead in Sweden. He was due to stand trial. Police said they had arrested five people and launched a murder investigation.
This was reported by The New York Times.
Momika was due to appear in Stockholm District Court on Thursday on charges of agitation against an ethnic or national group.
Stockholm police refused to confirm the killing, saying that a shooting occurred late Wednesday night in a town near Stockholm, killing a man. However, prosecutors confirmed that it was Momika. Authorities did not say whether the killing was related to the Koran burning.
Momika's burning of the Koran outside a mosque on one of Islam's holiest days has sparked protests in the Muslim world, including in Sweden. He has also expressed anti-Islamic views and said he was trying to raise awareness of the abuses of Christian minorities by Islamists in parts of the Muslim world.
Swedish authorities have condemned Momika's anti-Muslim actions, but said Sweden's freedom of speech laws meant they had little power to intervene.
According to the prosecutor handling the case, Momika was charged with inciting against an ethnic or national group.
Reuters news agency reports that five people have been arrested in connection with the killing of 38-year-old Salvan Momika and have been taken into custody by a prosecutor. Police did not say whether the shooter was among those detained.
On Thursday, January 30, a Stockholm court was set to sentence Momik and another man in a criminal trial for "agitation against an ethnic or national group" in connection with the burning of the Quran.
Iran's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2023 that people who desecrate the Quran should face the "severest punishment," and Sweden "put itself in battle formation for war with the Muslim world" by supporting those responsible.
In 2023, the Swedish Migration Agency wanted to deport Momik for providing false information in his residence permit application, but was unable to do so because he was threatened with torture and inhuman treatment in Iraq.
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