“Abed to 12-year-old girl: ‘I want my mother’s death’ – then he brutally rapes her,” translated from “Abed till 12-årig flicka: ‘Jag vill mammas död’ – sedan våldtog han henne brutalt,” Samnytt, November 23, 2020 :
A Syrian citizen was sentenced to 1 year and 2 months in prison and deportation after taking a 12-year-old girl to a migrant residence where he then raped her. Now the Court of Appeal has torn up the verdict and saved the man in Sweden. The court “assumes” that there will be obstacles to enforcement.
It was on August 6 that a twelve-year-old girl accompanied a friend who was one year older to meet a migrant in Täby Centrum in northern Greater Stockholm. The girl’s friend had made contact with the, according to his own statement, 19-year-old Syrian citizen Abed Alrazzaq Dib Darwich Alhamo through the social media platform Snapchat.
There Abed pretended to be called “Adam”. After the first meeting between the three people, they decided to see each other the next day, this time in Åkersberga.
Criminal migrant
The girls took the train to Åkersberga, where they met Abed. What they did not know was that after arriving in Sweden in 2017, he was given a suspended sentence for robbery and assault, with 160 hours of community service, and the same year, he was also charged with another assault, but in that case the evidence was not considered sufficient for a conviction.
Abed took the girls to the migrant accommodation where he stays in the municipality. At the accommodation, the group hung out with Abed’s friends. The girls got a bad feeling when the migrants started talking Arabic to each other and glancing at them. Suddenly, Abed’s friend went out to smoke and took the 12-year-old girl’s friend with him.
Abed then took the opportunity to lock the door and pull down the blinds in the bedroom they were staying in. Then he forced the girl to take off her clothes. It appears from her testimony that she opposed this and made it clear that she was only 12 years old.
But as she tried to get out of the situation, Abed held her by the wrists. He then carried out a vaginal rape in the room. The girl testifies that Abed’s phone rang several times during the assault.
The twelve-year-old’s friend tells the police that the other migrant who went out to smoke started calling Abed when they were on their way in again. But the door to Abed’s room was locked, and a moment later the girl came out and looked ruined.
They went home and the girl told her parents what had happened, because she feared she would get pregnant when the condom that Abed used had broken.
Threatened not to talk to the police
In a police interrogation with the 12-year-old girl’s mother, she recounts how Abed allegedly threatened her daughter with warnings not to talk to either her parents or the police, because she would then be “hit hard”. For unknown reasons, however, Abed was not charged with assault in court.
Abed: “You do not want but I want – and I do”
According to the girl, Abed is said to have wanted sex and swore upon his “mother’s death” to reinforce how much he wanted. Then he made it clear to the 12-year-old girl that he was doing what he wanted.
District Court mitigated punishment
Abed was arrested by police and admitted that they had sex, but claimed it was “voluntary”. Furthermore, Abed stated that he did not know her age, which both girls believe he did.
On September 10, Attunda District Court convicted Abed of raping a child and stated that he had been negligent, because he had not done any research into the girl’s age.
The court considered that imprisonment for one year and two months was a sufficient sanction because it was also decided on deportation, but with the possibility of returning to Sweden in 2030. For the deportation, Abed received a four-month reduction of the prison sentence.
The Court of Appeal stops deportation
On 12 November, the Svea Court of Appeal announced that it agreed with the district court’s assessment regarding the child rape. However, the penalty was changed and the expulsion was torn up.
The Court of Appeal believes that it is probably not possible to deport him to Syria. This is because the investigation must have shown that Abed has no direct connection to his home country.
Taking into account the man’s personal circumstances and the situation in Syria, there are no conditions under which the Court of Appeal can decide on deportation. This is because it is “assumed” that there will be impediments to enforcement when the issue of deportation becomes relevant.
The Court of Appeal determines the penalty to imprisonment for one and a half years, which after reducing the sentence according to the two-thirds rule, becomes a sentence of one year.
