The case is expected to begin in the Uppsala District Court on October 3.
Here, four teenagers accused of killing a man by hanging must come together.
The case received widespread coverage in the Swedish media as the “Taxi Murder”.
The prosecution described the murder as “very special” given the defendants’ young age and its lack of connection to gang crimes. SVT.
Found hanging on a tree
The accused are four brothers, aged between 15 and 18, and a 16-year-old girl.
The deceased was a 26-year-old man who worked as a taxi driver. At the end of March this year, the man’s taxi was found in a wooded area outside Enköping in Sweden.
The taxi meter then remained running for three days, and the man was reported missing.
On April 1, a week later, he was found hanging from a tree in the Hellstaviken Forest.
Through the investigation, police discovered that the man was connected to one of the teenagers now accused.
Possible revenge motive
The girl who is now on trial reported the man for rape in February this year. He writes that the rape must have happened last summer Aftonbladet.
According to the police, the report was vague, and the man’s name was only mentioned under a pseudonym. Therefore, the case was quickly dropped.
– The accident happened a long time ago, there were no witnesses, and she could only give a surname to the person, says investigation chief Andreas Ballender of the Uppsala police at a press conference on Monday.
Investigation head Andreas Ballinder says the murder could have been prevented if the rape report had been investigated.
Photo: SVT
Reported rape is cited as a possible motive for the murder. In the past, the five allegedly told friends that they “were going to kill a rapist,” Aftonbladet wrote.
Police admit that the murder could have been avoided if the rape report had been prioritized.
“If you take it too far, we could theoretically prevent a single homicide,” Ballinder says.
He must have transferred the money
Prosecutors have several pieces of evidence they believe link the teens to the murder:
- The police found the cell phones of the five teenagers It collided with the telephone mast covering the crime scene.
- One of the accused is said to have purchased blue rope and duct tape from a hardware store shortly before the murder. The rope matched the rope the man was found hanging from.
- One of the accused is said to have transferred money from the murdered man’s bank account to himself.
- A taxi driving license was found in the home of one of the accused.
- The DNA of some of the accused was found in the deceased’s car and on the rope with which he was hanged.
– There is also a possible financial motive, as the money and assets were taken from him, says prosecutor Moa Blomkvist.
He denies the criminal charge
Police believe the teens tricked the taxi driver in the forest area.
It is said that he met the girl who kept him until the four brothers arrived. They then allegedly stripped him of his clothes and hanged him.
In this forested area of Hjälstaviken outside Enköping in Sweden, the man was found hanging from a tree.
Photo: SVT
The five deny criminal charges of murder. However, the girl admitted that she lured the man to the area, thinking the brothers would “just” hurt him, according to the report. SVT.
The prosecution believes that the death was extremely painful and carried the character of an execution.
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