A photo taken on Sept. 3, 2023, showing Salwan Momika using a megaphone to speak in Malmö, in southern Sweden. (Credit: Johan Nilsson/AFP)
Iraqi national Salwan Momika, who sparked angry protests in Muslim countries in 2023, was shot dead in a suburb of Stockholm, Swedish media reported Thursday, with police confirming a shooting Wednesday night.
A Stockholm court was set to deliver its verdict Thursday on charges of incitement to ethnic hatred against him. It announced that it had postponed its decision to Feb. 3 "following the confirmation of Momika's death."
Police explained in a statement that they were called for gunfire Wednesday night in a building in Sodertalje, a suburb of Stockholm, where Momaki lived. Upon arriving at the building, they found "a man wounded by gunfire who was taken to the hospital," before later indicating that he had succumbed to his wounds and a murder investigation had been opened. According to several media outlets, Momika was live on social media, and his murder may have been filmed. Five people have been arrested.
'Agitation against an ethnic group'
During the summer of 2023, Momika, along with Salwan Najem, a known partner in his protests, was brought to trial for "agitation against an ethnic group" four times.
According to the indictment, the duo desecrated the Quran, including burning it while making derogatory remarks about Muslims — in one instance, outside a mosque in Stockholm. Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries deteriorated in the summer of 2023 because of this.
In July 2023, Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad twice, setting fires within the embassy compound the second time. In August of the same year, the Swedish intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of five, as the Quran burnings made the country a "priority target." The Swedish government condemned the desecrations while reminding that freedom of expression and assembly is protected by the Constitution.
In October 2023, a Swedish court found a man guilty of incitement to ethnic hatred for burning the Quran in 2020, marking the first conviction of its kind. Previously, the judiciary considered such an act protected by freedom of expression, but since then, it can also be deemed "agitation against an ethnic group."