An 8-year-old boy in Umeå, northern Sweden, was subjected to a humiliating robbery where he was forced to remove all his clothes and do push-ups. The 16-year-old perpetrator, originally from Somalia, claims in police interrogation that he targeted the little boy because he “looked like a racist”.
The incident occurred on a Saturday afternoon in May when the 8-year-old boy was out cycling. A 16-year-old from Somalia stopped him on the bike path and threatened to call his friends if the boy didn’t obey his orders.
The child was then forced to strip completely naked and perform push-ups while the 16-year-old played music and cycled around him. Eventually, the 8-year-old managed to flee home through the forest – still naked.
The boy’s father Lenny describes the traumatic moment when his son came home.
— He comes running in completely naked. ‘I’ve been robbed, help’. He’s in a state of panic, says the father, describing the course of events further to Swedish public radio SR.
— It’s a guy, a youth who chases after him and forces him to give up his bike, bike helmet, socks, underwear, shirt. So he’s completely naked and forced to do push-ups.
The parents immediately alerted police who found the boy’s clothes at the scene, but the perpetrator had already disappeared.
Wanted to “beat up” 9-year-old
The weekend after, the boy and his father saw the 16-year-old at a football match. Police were alerted again but arrived only after the match had ended and everyone had left. With the help of the description, Hassan, as the 16-year-old is named, could be identified and arrested.
It then emerged that Hassan had tried to take the bike from another boy, nine years old, two days earlier. In interrogation, he stated that he had intended to “beat him up”.
In the police interrogation, Hassan confirms the course of events but doesn’t believe he committed any crime. He says he “just wanted to see the boy’s reaction” and thought he would resist. He then claims that the real victim is himself – and that he felt targeted by the child’s alleged racism.
— He took it as if I was going to rob him because of my skin color. I’m not saying that’s how it is, but it could be. He doesn’t want to talk to me. If you had been there, you would have seen how he behaved. Like a racist! says Hassan in the interrogation and continues:
— He looked like a racist! I think he’ll vote for SD [Sweden Democrats] when he gets older. I don’t know if that’s what he was thinking, but it could be.
Father: “How can someone be so cowardly?”
The boy’s father is very upset about the incident and the Somali’s cowardly behavior.
— How can someone be so cowardly as to target such a young guy just to humiliate. It’s completely insane, says Lenny.
He also believes that the problem with humiliation robberies is no longer just found in major cities:
— It’s not just about Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö and their various areas. But it also exists here in Umeå unfortunately, you can’t turn a blind eye to the problem.
Sweden Democrats leader: “The new Sweden”
Police in Västerbotten county confirm that they have seen an increase in humiliation robberies recently and that they have investigated about ten similar cases in the past year.
Hassan is now being prosecuted for unlawful coercion and unlawful threats. Under current Swedish legislation, however, he cannot be deported as he has been granted Swedish citizenship.
The brutal case has received significant attention on social media where many are horrified by a societal development where even small children risk being subjected to brutal and traumatizing attacks in broad daylight. Sweden Democrats MP Richard Jomshof is among many who have reacted strongly.
“This is the new Sweden, where Swedes have to accept being humiliated and robbed by imported perpetrators, without anyone caring”, he writes among other things.
