Five arrested in Sweden after anti-Islam campaigner shot dead; PM concerned over foreign links to shooting

Swedish police arrested five people on Thursday after an Iraqi anti-Islam campaigner was shot dead hours before a court verdict was due in a trial over his burning the Koran, as the prime minister expressed concerns over the killing's links to a foreign power.

The five were arrested in connection with the shooting of Salwan Momika, 38, an Iraqi refugee, in a house in Sodertalje town near Stockholm on Wednesday, and ordered detained by a prosecutor, police said. They did not say if the gunman was among those detained.

Momika had burned and desecrated copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, either in public or in social media broadcasts in 2023.

"I can assure you that the security services are deeply involved because there is obviously a risk that there is a connection to a foreign power," Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a news conference on Thursday.

A Stockholm court had been due to sentence Momika and another man on Thursday in a criminal trial over "offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group," in connection with the Koran burnings but postponed the verdict.

Sweden in 2023 raised its terrorism alert to the second-highest level and warned of threats against Swedes at home and abroad after the Koran burnings, most of them by Momika, outraged Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.

Sweden's Security Service told Reuters it was assessing the potential impact of the shooting "on Swedish security."

Burning the Koran is seen by Muslims as a blasphemous act because they consider it the literal word of God.

While the Swedish government condemned the wave of Koran burnings in 2023, it is widely regarded as a protected form of free speech.

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

Sweden's migration agency in 2023 wanted to deport Momika for giving false information on his residency application, but couldn't as he risked torture and inhumane treatment in Iraq.