Suspect remanded for Landskrona killing
The 23-year-old man suspected of the fatal beating of a 78-year-old woman in a Landskrona car park last week has been remanded into custody on charges of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
Police and prosecutors now have until April 20th to collect testimony from witnesses, which include relatives of the 23-year-old.
Lund District Court has also decided to permit a personal case study of the 23-year-old.
The 23-year-old denies the charges against him but his lawyer, Urban Jansson, has not specified the grounds for his client's denial or whether he has admitted being at the scene.
Jansson did not rule out appealing the decision to remand his client into custody, arguing that the warrant in itself is a disappointment, but he considered it positive that the charges did not include murder or voluntary manslaughter.
"In my view this is an incident which closely resembles an accident. This is no pre-meditated crime," said Jansson.
The officer leading the investigation, Tommy Lindén, explained to journalists at Landskrona police station that the district court's decision to charge the man with the lesser offences means that murder or voluntary manslaughter have been ruled out of the ongoing investigation.
"The district court has made its judgement and we have to abide by it. Involuntary manslaughter is a crime without malice aforethought, a non-willful violation," he said.
He does not anticipate that the charges will be increased at any future remand hearing.
"If that is to occur then something exceptional has to happen," he said.
The 78-year-old woman was punched in the face while trying to intervene on behalf of her 71-year-old partner who was being attacked by a man in a parking dispute last Monday. She lost consciousness and died after undergoing an operation at the Skåne University Hospital in Lund on Wednesday.
The 71-year-old man escaped the incident with minor injuries.
The 23-year-old man was arrested on Good Friday. A further man has been arrested on charges of aiding and abetting the 23-year-old suspect.
With the suspect's immigrant background a source of major debate on internet forums, police have sought to pour cold water on suggestions that the death had any connection to integration problems long evident in the southern town.
"This is more a question of gender than ethnicity. If there had been a woman in the car this would never have happened," Tommy Lindén told reporters at Tuesday's press conference.
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Police and prosecutors now have until April 20th to collect testimony from witnesses, which include relatives of the 23-year-old.
Lund District Court has also decided to permit a personal case study of the 23-year-old.
The 23-year-old denies the charges against him but his lawyer, Urban Jansson, has not specified the grounds for his client's denial or whether he has admitted being at the scene.
Jansson did not rule out appealing the decision to remand his client into custody, arguing that the warrant in itself is a disappointment, but he considered it positive that the charges did not include murder or voluntary manslaughter.
"In my view this is an incident which closely resembles an accident. This is no pre-meditated crime," said Jansson.
The officer leading the investigation, Tommy Lindén, explained to journalists at Landskrona police station that the district court's decision to charge the man with the lesser offences means that murder or voluntary manslaughter have been ruled out of the ongoing investigation.
"The district court has made its judgement and we have to abide by it. Involuntary manslaughter is a crime without malice aforethought, a non-willful violation," he said.
He does not anticipate that the charges will be increased at any future remand hearing.
"If that is to occur then something exceptional has to happen," he said.
The 78-year-old woman was punched in the face while trying to intervene on behalf of her 71-year-old partner who was being attacked by a man in a parking dispute last Monday. She lost consciousness and died after undergoing an operation at the Skåne University Hospital in Lund on Wednesday.
The 71-year-old man escaped the incident with minor injuries.
The 23-year-old man was arrested on Good Friday. A further man has been arrested on charges of aiding and abetting the 23-year-old suspect.
With the suspect's immigrant background a source of major debate on internet forums, police have sought to pour cold water on suggestions that the death had any connection to integration problems long evident in the southern town.
"This is more a question of gender than ethnicity. If there had been a woman in the car this would never have happened," Tommy Lindén told reporters at Tuesday's press conference.
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