Prosecution wraps up case against four charged in Sweden dance hall fire

Firefighters inspect the damage in a burned dance hall in Gothenburg, Sweden

May 16, 2000
Web posted at: 12:58 PM EDT (1658 GMT)

In this story: Motive was revenge, prosecutor says Verdict in two weeks RELATED STORIES, SITES

From CNN Svenska's Joakim Goksor

GOTHENBURG, Sweden (CNN) -- The prosecution finished closing arguments on Wednesday in the trial of four young men accused of starting a 1998 fire that killed 63 teen-agers in a Gothenburg dance hall.

Prosecutor Ulf Noren urged a full conviction of the four defendants, accused of aggravated arson, but argued for a mitigated sentence.

He urged prison terms of "several years" for the three oldest defendants. The fourth defendant, who was under 18 at the time of the October 1998 fire, should be turned over to youth authorities, the prosecutor said.

Swedish penal law provides 6 to 10 years in prison to life imprisonment for aggravated arson.

Motive was revenge, prosecutor says

Noren said the young men started the fire after pouring flammable liquids over chairs in the dance hall's emergency exit. The motive was revenge, he said.

Noren said he never had argued or thought that the four young men planned to specifically kill 63 youths and severely injure 200 others.

"But the fire was deliberately started," he said. "The four defendants knew that harm would be caused by their actions. Moreover, they knew they were in an emergency exit and that (there were) a lot of people in the dance hall. They also knew that the emergency exit was full of inflammable materials."

The prosecutor said he hopes the forthcoming verdict would not be appealed to save the survivors and relatives of the victims a repetition of the painful trial.

Verdict in two weeks

Three of the defendants are now 19 years old, and one is 21. According to ethical rules of Swedish press, the accused will not be identified by name during the trial.

All of the accused are immigrants, belonging to the Kurdish-Iranian minority, who migrated to Sweden as children.

After the prosecution closed its case, Thomas Bodstrom, a lawyer speaking for about 250 plaintiffs in the trial, demanded the stiffest penalty available for all four defendants.

Proceedings will resume Thursday, with closing arguments from the four defense lawyers.

The trial is being held in a closed courtroom in a trade fair center in Gothenburg. Survivors, journalists and relatives follow the proceedings from TV screens in two separate chambers.

Two judges and four politically elected members are presiding over the trial. The verdict and the sentence will be decided by all six of them together in about two weeks.

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Report cites arson in 1998 Swedish dance hall fire
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Swedish official says arson caused deadly 1998 dance hall fire
February 24, 2000
60 dead in Sweden dance hall fire
October 30, 1998

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