Two Afghan migrants are facing light sentences after being convicted of raping a young girl and filming the assault. Irshad Ahmad and Elham Bahram will not face deportation from Sweden as the two were granted citizenship approximately four years ago.
The rape took place in February in the residential Nydala neighborhood of Malmö. Armed with a knife, the two migrants – both of whom were 16 years of age – coerced the girl to a hidden spot outdoors. While threatening to murder her if she resisted, the girl was raped by both of the predators.
The gang rape was later reported to the police, after which Irshad and Elham were arrested and remanded into custody. There was ample evidence to substantiate the rape, including their DNA being both at the scene and on the girl. But the most damning entry to the court was footage taken on a mobile phone which closely documented the attack. Irshad and Elham reportedly had a friend record them while they assaulted the girl.
During court proceedings, Irshad and Elham denied any wrongdoing, even when faced with the overwhelming evidence. One of them admitted to the sexual acts, but claimed that the girl was consenting. The other, however, attempted to deny his involvement completely while simultaneously arguing he didn’t know the girl’s age.
On July 2, the Malmö District Court convicted Irshad of aggravated rape against a child, offensive photography, child pornography, and additional assaults against two other girls. But, due to his young age, Irshad will not be sent to prison and will instead spend 10 months in youth residential care.
Elham was similarly convicted for the aggravated rape of a child and spared prison. He has been sentenced to 1 year of youth supervision, and the sentence will be carried out in the community.
The two have also been ordered to pay SEK 365,000 (approx. $34,000 USD) in compensation to the victim, but there has been speculation that Swedish taxpayers will have to step in and shoulder the cost as the teens likely do not have the financial means to fulfill the order.
Irshad and Elham are said to have landed in Sweden in 2017, and they were given Swedish citizenship within three years of their arrival.
Sweden has been grappling with a spike in sexual assaults committed by migrants, many of which were granted refugee status in the nation. In 2018, Sweden adopted the UN’s “world-first global migration agreement,” thus declaring it had a “responsibility to protect the world’s 258 million people on the move.”
The same year as signing the agreement, a Swedish investigative journalism show analyzed all district court cases involving sentences for rape or attempted rape, and found that 58% those convicted had a foreign background.
