Solna District Court (Solna tingsrätt) has issued a sentence of seven years and ten months’ imprisonment for 44-year-old Salar Zandi, which is shorter than the nine years’ imprisonment that the prosecutor had requested. The social services officer has been accused of committing a number of offenses, including robbery and rape, against several foreign prostitutes in the Stockholm area.
“The Solna District Court has today sentenced a 44-year-old man for two instances of aggravated rape and three instances of robbery in the Stockholm area between December 2023 and February 2024. It is alleged that the man entered into five separate agreements with prostitutes to purchase sexual services. When he approached the women, he sexually assaulted or robbed them, in four cases at knifepoint and in one case with the help of an air gun”, the district court states.
It is worth noting that all the victims were foreign nationals, which may be seen as a factor contributing to their vulnerability. The District Court finds their accounts to be credible and determines that the man is responsible for the abuse in question.
“The man is convicted despite his denials. The District Court did not believe his explanations that he had agreed to buy sex from the women, but later stopped visiting them. The district court also finds it unlikely that the women conspired against the man and invented the events”, the court said.
Explanations rejected
– It is ruled out that the crimes were committed by anyone other than the accused man. It is unlikely that one or more other perpetrators – on five separate occasions – would have been in the area at the same time, taking advantage of the fact that the woman was waiting for a sex buyer and committing the assaults, said the court’s president, Josefin Mallmin.
In addition to the prison sentence, Zandi must also pay damages to the women. Denis Celo, the plaintiffs’ attorney, says his clients are “relieved“ that the court believed their testimony. Three of the five victims were flown to Sweden to attend the trial
The social worker was convicted of five separate incidents. They are two counts of aggravated rape (December 8, 2023 and January 12, 2024), purchase of sexual services and aggravated robbery (January 24, 2024), aggravated robbery (February 5, 2024) and purchase of sexual services and aggravated robbery (February 15, 2024).
