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Victims' families demand Quick investigation

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Victims' families demand Quick investigation

The families of murder victims originally thought to have been killed by sentenced serial killer Thomas Quick are now demanding an independent investigation of the justice scandal surrounding Quick, who has been acquitted of several murders.

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“The investigation should chart how things could’ve gone so wrong, and create regulations to prevent this happening again,” said Björn Asplund to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

Asplund’s son Johan Asplund disappeared in 1980, and Thomas Quick was convicted of his murder.

Quick, who has changed his name to Sture Bergwall, was convicted of eight murders between the years 1994 and 2001, but has since been acquitted of three of them, including the murder of Johan Asplund.

Retrials have been granted for another two cases, and in June the last three applications for retrial were submitted.

One of the affected cases is the murder of Charles Zelmanovits, who disappeared in Piteå in 1976. Quick was convicted of murdering him in 1994.

Zelmanovits’ brother considers the entire court case a failure of justice which must be investigated.

“I don’t understand how he could even have been convicted. That might happen in less developed countries, but it shouldn’t happen in Sweden. No one cared about those who disagreed,” said the brother to SvD.

Mattias Göransson, editor in chief of the magazine Filter, edited the upcoming book Fallet Thomas Quick (The case of Thomas Quick) by recently deceased journalist Hannes Råstam. He is also highly critical and believes that an investigation of where responsibility lies in the Thomas Quick issue isn’t about trying to punish any individual.

“At the end of the day it’s about making sure that nothing of the sort can happen again, and showing that the legal system deserves the public’s confidence,” wrote Göransson in an opinion piece published in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

“And not least, showing decency and respect towards the victims’ relatives.”

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