Sweden’s Supreme Court has ruled that a teenager, born in Sweden, can be deported to Gambia following his murder conviction.
In a landmark case, the youngster, whose parents were originally from Gambia according to Swedish media reports, shot and killed a 30-year-old man in front of the victim’s family — including a child — when he was 17 years old.
In its ruling, the district court described the gang-related murder as a “cold-blooded execution”.
After confessing to the crime, the now-19-year-old was originally sentenced to prison for seven years with a lifelong deportation order.
The Court of Appeal upheld most of the verdict but reduced the deportation term to 10 years and cut the prison sentence by two months, citing the length of time he had already spent in custody.
On April 23, the Supreme Court ruled that the appeal decision was proportionate.
“In such cases, there must be very weighty reasons for a decision on expulsion not to conflict with the right to private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights,” the court said.
It highlighted that the young man was a member of a criminal group and that the murder was connected with a gang conflict.
Despite extensive efforts to rehabilitate the teenager, “his development has been negative and his criminal lifestyle has not been broken”, according to Swedish authorities.
In view of the particularly serious nature of crime for which he was convicted, the Supreme Court concluded that deportation was appropriate. That applied despite the fact that teenager was born in Sweden and that “he committed the crime as a minor”, it ruled.
Justice Cecilia Renfors said reasons against deportation – his age, that he committed the crime as a minor and that his family were in Sweden and he has no connection to the other country – were considered, but that the crime was too serious.
“The crime … would have resulted in a life sentence if he had been an adult when he committed it. It is also a planned and well-organised murder committed in a gang criminal context. These factors have weighed very heavily based on the stricter legislation that applies from 2022,” Renfors said.
Sweden used to have a ban on deportations but that was overturned in 2022.
Viktor Banke, the defence attorney for the teen, said that when there were strong reasons both for and against a deportation order, the court should have chosen not to deport such a young person.
He stressed that his client has lived in Sweden his entire life and never been to Gambia.
The Swedish Government has already announced it wanted to see more criminals deported.
After over 30 explosions and several fatal shootings in the first month of the year, the Swedish government admitted the country was suffering from a new wave of violence over which it had no control. https://t.co/m0bclCg2ks
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 30, 2025
