Assault inquiry into Eurovision star Måns Zelmerlöw dropped, Swedish krona over-valued according to ‘Big Mac Index’, and other news from Sweden on Tuesday.
Prosecutor drops inquiry in Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw
A prosecutor in Sweden has dropped an assault investigation into 2015 Eurovision winner Måns Zelmerlöw whose ex-wife Ciara Janson had accused him of smashing her into a wall.
The inquiry was launched in May into the alleged attack, which Janson said had taken place on March 6th.
Zelmerlöw’s defence lawyer, Hanna Lindblom, said the decision to end the investigation was “very much expected”, and said her client was “extremely relieved to be able to draw a line under this.”
Janson accused Zelmerlöw of “emotional and physical abuse” in a post on Instagram earlier this year.
Zelmerlöw countered with his own post: “To those of you who believe I would ever be violent against Ciara or my own children, I want to say the following: ‘I have never so much as bent a hair on their heads, or hit either the children or my wife. That is the truth.'”
Janson told the Expressen newspaper that it was “unfortunately common” for police to lay down investigations in these sorts of cases.
Swedish vocabulary: känslomässigt – emotional
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Swedish krona over-valued according to Economist’s ‘Big Mac Index’
The Swedish krona is now overvalued against the dollar, according to The Economist newspaper’s Big Mac index.
A Big Mac burger at McDonalds costs 71 kronor in Sweden and $6 in the US, which would suggest an exchange rate of 11.8 kronor. But the current exchange rate is 9.7 kronor per dollar, indicating that the krona is overvalued by 22 percent.
Swedish vocabulary: övervärderad – overvalued
Swedish prosecutor to investigate war crimes in Gaza
Swedish prosecutors have received more than 700 reports of war crimes carried out in Gaza, with several investigations already ongoing, Sweden’s public broadcaster Sveriges Radio, has reported.
The investigations are being led by the police’s war crimes group and reports have been made by both private individuals and organisations, according to Reena Devgun, team leader for the war crimes prosecutors’ group.
“What we are perhaps primarily interested in is witness observations from people with connections to Sweden who have actually been there,” she told the broadcaster.
Most of the accusations are against individuals who have committed crimes while in Gaza itself, but there are also accusations against national leaders.
Swedish vocabulary: anklagelser – accusations
Swedes in court in Norway over bomb attack
Two 20-year-old Swedish men will go to trial in Oslo on Tuesday after being charged for planting a bomb outside a home in Drøbak in Frogn municipality, south of Oslo on the night of October 23rd, 2023, the Nettavisen newspaper reported on Monday.
None of the six people inside the house at the time were injured, but at least one of them could have been killed in connection with the attack, the charge document claims.
One of the two men denies involvement in the crime, while the other, who was a teenager at the time, has admitted planting the bomb.
Swedish vocabulary: i samband med – in connection with
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More mobile phones found in prisons
The number of mobile phones found in prisons nearly doubled last year to 133 from 76 in 2023, risking that criminals held by police will be able to continue to plan and carry out crimes, or attempt to silence witnesses.
“Phones are extremely small and easy to hide,” said Josefin Skoglund, the acting security director at the Swedish Prison and Probation Service.
The phones are smuggled in by prison staff and visitors, carried in by prisoners or thrown in over prison walls.
Swedish vocabulary: lätta att gömma – easy to hide