A man in his 20s has been acquitted of charges of incitement to murder and incitement to serious public destruction by the Varberg District Court. The man was accused of seeking murder and bombing assignments for payment in an encrypted chat app last autumn, with suspected targets in Varberg and Gothenburg. The court found it not proven that he went beyond showing interest in the violent assignments, and there was no evidence that his interest led to a commitment.
The man claimed his contact with the assignors was to find out if he or a friend of his were targets. He was convicted of violating a residence ban and minor drug offenses, receiving a one-year prison sentence. The prosecutor had sought a lifetime deportation for the man, who is a citizen of an EU country, but the court's assessment spared him deportation.