Suspect identified in Quran-burner murder case

A suspect has been identified in the murder of an anti-Islam campaigner in Sweden in January, the public prosecutor said on Monday.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in January, referring to the killing, that "there is obviously a risk that there is a connection to a foreign power".

Prosecutor said in a statement, "We have a good picture of the sequence of events and after extensive technical investigations and review of obtained surveillance footage."

"At present, the suspect's whereabouts are unknown," he added. 

The suspect wasn't named in the statement. 

A detention hearing was set for Friday in a district court, a procedure under Swedish law prior to the issuance of an international wanted notice for the suspect.

Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee who frequently burned and desecrated copies of the Quran at public rallies, was shot dead in a town near Stockholm hours before the verdict in a trial where he stood accused of "offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group".

The Quran burnings, seen by Muslims as a blasphemous act as they consider the Quran to be the literal word of God, drew widespread condemnation and complicated Sweden's NATO accession process, which was eventually completed in 2024.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2023 that people who desecrate the Quran should face the "most severe punishment" and that Sweden had "gone into battle array for war on the Muslim world" by allegedly supporting those responsible.

Sweden in 2023 raised its terrorism alert to the second-highest level and warned of threats against Swedes at home and abroad after the Quran burnings. It was lowered back to three on a scale of five earlier this year.

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