Sixteen years in prison for 'Missing Marina' killer
TT/The Local/og - [email protected]
Published: 14 Mar, 2014 CET.
Updated: Fri 14 Mar 2014 11:32 CET
UPDATED: A Swedish court on Friday sentenced a man to 16 years in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend Marina Johansson, who was found dead two years after she went missing.
The 40-year-old was found guilty in January of killing the woman, and on Friday the Western Sweden Appeals Court in Gothenburg handed down the sentence. He had originally been acquitted of the murder charge by a district court and a court of appeals while Johansson body was still missing. Her body was later found by a volunteer search organization two years after her death, not far from the scene of the crime, leading to renewed charges. "He sat through two trials that led to him not being found guilty," said the man's lawyer Michael Hansson. "That was quite taxing. He was set free but was subjected to statements that he was guilty the whole time(...) then there was another trial." "It's quite unique and it's an extreme amount of pressure that he has been subjected to," Hansson told the TT news agency, adding that he and his client would review the verdict and sentence before making any decisions about how to proceed. The prosecution had argued for life in prison or, alternatively, 18 years behind bars, which is the longest sentence a Swedish court can hand down if it does not issue life in prison. Chief prosecutor Urban Svenqvist told TT on Friday that he had expected a stricter sentence, but said the court had overall came to the same conclusions as those of the police and the prosecutors who had worked on the case for years. "The relatives of course will still feel suffering even though they now at least don't have to wonder about whether justice has been served or not," Svenqvist said. A psychiatric review showed that the man was not mentally disturbed at the time of the murder in 2010. He has always maintained his innocence.
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The 40-year-old was found guilty in January of killing the woman, and on Friday the Western Sweden Appeals Court in Gothenburg handed down the sentence.
He had originally been acquitted of the murder charge by a district court and a court of appeals while Johansson body was still missing. Her body was later found by a volunteer search organization two years after her death, not far from the scene of the crime, leading to renewed charges.
"He sat through two trials that led to him not being found guilty," said the man's lawyer Michael Hansson. "That was quite taxing. He was set free but was subjected to statements that he was guilty the whole time(...) then there was another trial."
"It's quite unique and it's an extreme amount of pressure that he has been subjected to," Hansson told the TT news agency, adding that he and his client would review the verdict and sentence before making any decisions about how to proceed.
The prosecution had argued for life in prison or, alternatively, 18 years behind bars, which is the longest sentence a Swedish court can hand down if it does not issue life in prison. Chief prosecutor Urban Svenqvist told TT on Friday that he had expected a stricter sentence, but said the court had overall came to the same conclusions as those of the police and the prosecutors who had worked on the case for years.
"The relatives of course will still feel suffering even though they now at least don't have to wonder about whether justice has been served or not," Svenqvist said.
A psychiatric review showed that the man was not mentally disturbed at the time of the murder in 2010. He has always maintained his innocence.
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