Koran burner Salwan Momika shot dead in Södertälje Sweden

This is breaking news this morning in both the Swedish and the international press. The BBC,  the Swedish edition of the Local  Expressen (for which I am using Google translate – do forgive me) and NDTV of India

Stockholm: A man who repeatedly burnt the Qoran in 2023 in Sweden, sparking outrage in Muslim countries, has been shot dead, media reported Thursday as police confirmed a man died in a shooting the day before. Stockholm police told state broadcaster SVT News that a man in his 40s was found shot in an apartment and later died.

A Stockholm court was due to rule on Thursday whether Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Qorans at a slew of protests, was guilty of inciting ethnic hatred.  It postponed the ruling until February 3, saying that “because Salwan Momika has died, more time is needed.”

It was just after 11 p.m. on Wednesday that police were alerted to the Hovsjö district in Södertälje, after shots were fired indoors in an apartment building.

In the house was Salwan Momika who was hit and taken to hospital, Expressen learns.

There was a live broadcast on Salwan Momika’s Tiktok account shortly before the shooting. Parts of the sequence of events may have been broadcast live. “It is a piece of information that has come to us and we are investigating the matter,” says Nadya Norton, press spokesperson at the police.

Five people have been arrested,” says prosecutor Rasmus Öhman, who is leading the preliminary investigation.

“The classification that the on-call prosecutor has requested is murder. The Security Service is involved, according to information to Expressen.

“In general terms, we have a close collaboration with the police. But when it comes to this particular operation, it is a police issue,” says Gabriel Wernstedt, press spokesperson at Säpo (Swedish security service). During the night, a major police operation has been underway in the area. Pictures from the district show police officers with reinforcement weapons.

Salwan Momika, 38, became a household name during Sweden’s NATO process when he repeatedly burned Korans. Together with his partner Salwan Najem, he was charged in August 2024 with four counts of incitement to racial hatred.

Among other things, the two reportedly burned a Quran, wrapped it in pork and kicked it around on the ground. They also, according to the prosecutor, made comments which could qualify as hets mot folkgrupp, literally “inciting hatred against a group of people”.

Expressen reports that the police were in contact with Najem early on Thursday morning.

Massive protests broke out in Muslim countries, which put Sweden in a diplomatic crisis, with an increased terror threat level as a result.

In Iraq, the city of al-Kufa promised a reward of two million dollars and a Koran made of two kilograms of gold to whoever killed him. The government in Baghdad requested his extradition.

Salwan Momika came to Sweden in the spring of 2018. In the autumn of 2023, his temporary residence permit was revoked and he tried to apply for asylum in Norway – but was soon back in Sweden and received a new residence permit last year.

The Migration Agency considered that he risked being tortured if he were to return to his home country of Iraq.

On his X Account he was at pains to point out that he was not an “ex-Muslim” but a Christian, an Assyrian, born into a Catholic Christian family, and whose mother tongue was Aramaic. He was hoping to raise the costs to apply for asylum in America.