Swedish ‘laserman’ killer of Jewish woman to stand trial in Germany

STOCKHOLM — Sweden has sent one of its most notorious killers to Germany to stand trial for allegedly murdering a Jewish woman in 1992, a chief prosecutor said on Monday.

“He agreed to be sent to Germany,” Krister Petersson, chief prosecutor at the international public prosecution office in Stockholm, told AFP.

Dubbed “Laserman” in Swedish media, 63-year-old John Ausonius went on a six-month shooting spree with a laser sight in 1991-1992, injuring 10 immigrants and killing one in Sweden.

He was sent to Germany about a week ago from Sweden, where he was serving life behind bars for the gun attacks.

A Swedish citizen, Ausonius is the number one suspect in the investigation into the murder of 68-year-old Blanka Zmigrod in Frankfurt on February 23, 1992. He denies the charges.

An employee at a restaurant in Frankfurt, Zmigrod, was shot in the head as she was on her way home, according to the German-Jewish weekly Juedische Allgemeine.

Ausonious had reportedly argued with Zmigrod before the murder, accusing her of theft, the weekly said.

Born Wolfgang Alexander Zaugg in Sweden to a German mother and a Swiss father, he was reportedly obsessed with his identity and rejected his foreign origins.