Note: This story was published in the Swedish newspaper “Fria Tider.” A translated link of the original article is here. Following is a summary of the article:
One of a gang of three Eritrean migrants in Ludvika, Sweden who participated in a brutal gang rape of a Swedish woman was awarded 140,000 kronor (about $1500), despite the fact that he participated in the rape and admitted that he even kissed the woman.
The gang rape took place in the early morning hours of October 17 of last year. The woman was on her way home after going to a cash machine when a few of the men asked her for a cigarette and then started following her. Eventually one of the men grabbed her in an alley and shoved his tongue in her mouth. Soon two more men came, and at first she thought they came to rescue her, but rather they formed a ring around her and subjected her to anal and vaginal rape while they took turns holding her down. The rape lasted fifteen to twenty minutes as the woman was in shock and screaming. Eventually a Swedish man came to the scene and the assailants fled. “I was in panic and completely destroyed,” the woman said at the hearing.
[Note: A “Dala-Democrat” article (See the translated link) explains that the men were identified and caught because they were forced to submit DNA swap samples after they were detained for sexually harassing female guests at a tavern, and the DNA matched the saliva on the cigarette butts at the rape scene.]
(See this translated article for full details about the acquittals:)
The court initially charged the three men with only four years in prison each, which is the Swedish penalty for aggravated rape [and likely in “country club” facilities as well], but the court then decided to acquit all of the men because the woman “described one of the men as more ‘passive’ during the rape,” which led the court to question which of the rapists did what, even though it is known for certain from the DNA evidence that at least one or possibly two of them actually committed the rape.
The third assailant that the victim described as “more passive” is now being compensated 140,000 SEK (about $1,500) for the time he was detained, despite the fact that he admitted to being on the scene and accused the other two of the rape, and it is possible that the other two will be compensated in the same way.