Sweden sentences four teens over shooting attack on Israeli defense company
No one injured in attack on Elbit Systems’ offices in Gothenburg last October, months after bomb plot foiled by police
A Swedish court sentenced four teenagers to prison on Monday for their involvement in a shooting attack that targeted an office of Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems in Gothenburg last year.
A 13-year-old boy opened fire on the entrance to the firm’s office on October 10, 2024.
He was arrested shortly after but was not charged since he was below Sweden’s age of criminal responsibility of 15.
No one was injured in the shooting in Sweden’s second-largest city. The verdict did not mention any motive for the attack.
However, the Gothenburg district court sentenced four others on Monday for their roles in recruiting the young boy, supplying the gun and organizing the shooting.
One 19-year-old was handed a five-year prison sentence for “involving a minor in a crime,” as well as aiding a weapons offense and aiding an unlawful threat.
Another 19-year-old was also given a five-year sentence, and a third was given four years and 11 months.
A 15-year-old boy was sentenced to a year and eight months of juvenile detention.
According to the prosecution, the identity of the mastermind of the shooting was still unknown, the court said in its ruling.
In June of last year, police said they had found a “suspected explosive object” outside the same Elbit offices in Gothenburg, later jailing three suspects in connection to the attempted attack.
Two insulated flasks packed with plastic explosives were found outside the offices of Elbit Systems on June 4.
Elbit, a major Israeli military contractor, is known for its unmanned aerial systems such as the Hermes 900 drone, one of the Israeli military’s most utilized autonomous weapons and a significant Israeli arms export to militaries around the globe.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, when the Palestinian terror group attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people, there have been several incidents targeting Israeli interests in Sweden.
In mid-May 2024, gunshots were fired outside the Israeli embassy, which prompted the country to boost security measures around Israeli interests and Jewish community institutions.
The Scandinavian country’s intelligence agency, Sapo, said later that same month that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden — a claim Iran denied.
The war has seen a sharp rise in attacks on Scandinavia’s 25,000-strong Jewish community. The increased threat to Jewish and Israeli targets led police in neighboring Norway to up their terrorism threat assessment to the second-highest level.
The Times of Israel Community.