Suspects in killing of Koran-burner in Sweden freed – prosecutor

Iranians burn a Swedish national flag during a demonstration outside Sweden’s embassy in Tehran on June 30 2023, denouncing the burning of Islam’s holy book. Salwan Momika, an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden who repeatedly burnt the Koran in 2023, sparking outrage in Muslim countries, has been shot dead, media reported on January 30, 2025, with police confirming a man died in a shooting the day before. A Stockholm court was due to rule on January 30, 2025 whether Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Korans at a slew of protests, was guilty of inciting ethnic hatred. It postponed the ruling, saying “one of the defendants has died.” (Photo by AFP)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Five suspects in the killing of Salwan Momika, who in 2023 repeatedly burned copies of the Koran, have all been freed, a prosecutor handling the case in Sweden said Friday.

“The suspicions have been undermined and I see no reason to keep these people under arrest” over the killing on Wednesday, prosecutor Rasmus Oman said in a statement, adding that the investigation was continuing.

Momika, 38, was shot on Wednesday in an apartment building in the city of Sodertalje, south of Stockholm, where he lived. He died soon after in hospital.

The five people in custody had been arrested overnight Wednesday to Thursday, just hours after the shooting.

A Stockholm court had been due to rule Thursday whether Momika, a Christian Iraqi, was guilty of inciting ethnic hatred but said it had postponed its ruling until February 3 as a result of his death.

“He was perfectly aware that a major threat hung over him,” his lawyer Anna Roth told Sweden’s TT news agency.

“There was a price on his head, as he said himself,” she added.