Jackie Arklöv
Encyclopedia
Jackie Banny Arklöv is a Swedish
convicted criminal. Arklöv is an ex-neo-Nazi and former mercenary
in the Yugoslav wars
, who murdered two police officers during a botched robbery in 1999.
; his mother was black and his father was white. At the age of three he was adopted by a couple from a small village in northern Sweden
, and in his teens he developed a strong interest in Nazism
and World War II
. Later on he wrote a letter to the neonazi-organisation Nationalsocialistisk Front that was published in their official magazine.
in the 1990s, as a mercenary on the Croatia
n side when he was only 19 years old. He has been accused of war crimes, including torturing Bosnian
prisoners in camps in Gabela
and Grabovina
.
After the war he was sentenced to thirteen years in prison by a Bosnian court. The court later changed the sentence to eight years, taking Arklöv's youth into consideration. He spent one year in a Bosnian prison, but returned to Sweden after an exchange of prisoners organized by the Swedish Red Cross. In Sweden he was taken into custody, but after a while he was acquitted for lack of evidence.
This arrangement resulted in a robbery tour of the Swedish province of Östergötland
in 1999, which ended on May 28 in the small town of Kisa
where Arklöv, Olsson and Axelsson robbed a bank. Tony Olsson waited outside the bank armed with an UZI submachine gun
while Arklöv and Axelsson went inside the bank, kicked open a door to the offices and cashregisters and threatened the employees to open the vaults. Due to the vault being time-locked, the robbers were forced to wait 12 minutes before leaving the bank with a large sum of cash. They got away with over two million SEK
, but during their escape a lone policeman, Kennet Eklund, followed them in his car. The robbers spotted him and opened fire, two hand-grenades were thrown in his direction and against his car. Both hand grenades exploded but Eklund got away without any injuries while the robbers continued their escape. About 10 minutes later the two policemen Olle Borén and Robert Karlström spot the robbers' vehicle and drive after them in their own police car. Gunfire occurred as both cars had stopped, and the two policemen were gunned down and executed with their own firearms.
Arklöv and Olsson fled, but Axelsson had been hit by a bullet and was taken to the hospital by a car flagged down by Arklöv. On May 31, 1999 Arklöv was shot by the police in Tyresö outside Stockholm
and again arrested and put into custody.
on a mask and in the car. After that he confessed to the robbery in Kisa, but still denied having killed the policemen. All three of the men appear to have been involved, and it could never be proved who was the killer.
The court then found them all guilty of murder, since it was clear that they had all been shooting at the two policemen, and they were sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence was appealed to the Court of Appeal, and Arklöv kept denying he had anything to do with the murders. The Court of Appeal gave the same sentence; life imprisonment for all three.
journalist Maciej Zaremba
published an article strongly criticizing the closure of the case, and he also managed to find several witnesses to the war crimes. Later that year the prosecutor decided to re-open the investigation, and in June 2006 it was clear that Arklöv would be prosecuted. His trial opened on November 10, 2006 and the judges made their ruling on December 18, 2006. The court ruled that Arklöv was guilty of wrongful imprisonment, torture and assault of 11 Bosnian Muslim prisoners of war and civilians, ethnic cleansing, looting, and arbitrary detention of people; crimes protected by international law. He was ordered to pay between 70,000–425,000 kronor (€7,700–€47,000; US$10,100–US$62,000) to 11 victims.
, but that court regarded the life sentence as written in such a way that Arklöv's confession would not change anything. The petition was rejected. At the same time Arklöv said he had abandoned his Nazi beliefs and had contacted the Exit
group for support. Arklöv is serving his life sentence at the Kumla High Security Prison
. He is an artist
, and had seven paintings put out on an exhibition for prison art at Långholmen
in Stockholm.
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
convicted criminal. Arklöv is an ex-neo-Nazi and former mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
in the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
, who murdered two police officers during a botched robbery in 1999.
Early life
Arklöv was born in LiberiaLiberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
; his mother was black and his father was white. At the age of three he was adopted by a couple from a small village in northern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, and in his teens he developed a strong interest in Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Later on he wrote a letter to the neonazi-organisation Nationalsocialistisk Front that was published in their official magazine.
Bosnia
Arklöv participated voluntarily in the war in YugoslaviaYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
in the 1990s, as a mercenary on the Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n side when he was only 19 years old. He has been accused of war crimes, including torturing Bosnian
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
prisoners in camps in Gabela
Gabela
Gabela is a town in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, 5 kilometres south of Čapljina and 4 kilometers from Metković, in Croatia. It is situated in the navigable lower course of the Neretva, off the major road linking the coast with the mountainous hinterland...
and Grabovina
Grabovina
Grabovina is a village in Herzegovina, in Čapljina municipality, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.-Ethnic composition, 1991 census:total: 947* Croats - 817 * Serbs - 57 * Muslims by nationality - 29...
.
After the war he was sentenced to thirteen years in prison by a Bosnian court. The court later changed the sentence to eight years, taking Arklöv's youth into consideration. He spent one year in a Bosnian prison, but returned to Sweden after an exchange of prisoners organized by the Swedish Red Cross. In Sweden he was taken into custody, but after a while he was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Police murders
While in custody Arklöv received several letters from another Neo-Nazi, Tony Olsson, who was starting a new neonazi organisation and, impressed by Arklöv's war experience, wanted him to join. Arklöv wrote back, and the two became friends. After being released, Arklöv and Olsson met with the other members of the newly started NRA (Nationalistiska Republikanska Armén, the Nationalistic Republican Army), among them Andreas Axelsson and Mats Nilsson.This arrangement resulted in a robbery tour of the Swedish province of Östergötland
Östergötland
Östergötland, English exonym: East Gothland, is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland, and the Baltic Sea. In older English literature, one might also encounter the Latinized version, Ostrogothia...
in 1999, which ended on May 28 in the small town of Kisa
Kisa (town)
Kisa is a locality and the seat of Kinda Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 3,697 inhabitants in 2005.Actress Karin Inger Monica Nilsson, who featured Pippi Longstocking from the book of Astrid Lindgren in the 1970s, was born here....
where Arklöv, Olsson and Axelsson robbed a bank. Tony Olsson waited outside the bank armed with an UZI submachine gun
Submachine gun
A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
while Arklöv and Axelsson went inside the bank, kicked open a door to the offices and cashregisters and threatened the employees to open the vaults. Due to the vault being time-locked, the robbers were forced to wait 12 minutes before leaving the bank with a large sum of cash. They got away with over two million SEK
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
, but during their escape a lone policeman, Kennet Eklund, followed them in his car. The robbers spotted him and opened fire, two hand-grenades were thrown in his direction and against his car. Both hand grenades exploded but Eklund got away without any injuries while the robbers continued their escape. About 10 minutes later the two policemen Olle Borén and Robert Karlström spot the robbers' vehicle and drive after them in their own police car. Gunfire occurred as both cars had stopped, and the two policemen were gunned down and executed with their own firearms.
Arklöv and Olsson fled, but Axelsson had been hit by a bullet and was taken to the hospital by a car flagged down by Arklöv. On May 31, 1999 Arklöv was shot by the police in Tyresö outside Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and again arrested and put into custody.
Trial
During the trial, Arklöv claimed to be completely innocent. He said he had been in Stockholm the entire time and did not take part in any of the robberies or the murders. This time, however, the evidence against him was strong. The police had found his fingerprints on a gun, and his DNADNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
on a mask and in the car. After that he confessed to the robbery in Kisa, but still denied having killed the policemen. All three of the men appear to have been involved, and it could never be proved who was the killer.
The court then found them all guilty of murder, since it was clear that they had all been shooting at the two policemen, and they were sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence was appealed to the Court of Appeal, and Arklöv kept denying he had anything to do with the murders. The Court of Appeal gave the same sentence; life imprisonment for all three.
Crimes against humanity charges
In March 2004, the Dagens NyheterDagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...
journalist Maciej Zaremba
Maciej Zaremba
Maciej Zaremba Bielawski is a Swedish journalist and author.Zaremba was born in Poznań, Poland. He came to Sweden in 1969 where he worked as a construction worker during the 1970s. In his youth he was active in the League Communist , but abandoned his communist views when the group was dissolved...
published an article strongly criticizing the closure of the case, and he also managed to find several witnesses to the war crimes. Later that year the prosecutor decided to re-open the investigation, and in June 2006 it was clear that Arklöv would be prosecuted. His trial opened on November 10, 2006 and the judges made their ruling on December 18, 2006. The court ruled that Arklöv was guilty of wrongful imprisonment, torture and assault of 11 Bosnian Muslim prisoners of war and civilians, ethnic cleansing, looting, and arbitrary detention of people; crimes protected by international law. He was ordered to pay between 70,000–425,000 kronor (€7,700–€47,000; US$10,100–US$62,000) to 11 victims.
In prison
In 2001 Arklöv decided to confess: he admitted killing the two Swedish policemen. Olsson and Axelsson moved a petition for a new trial to the Supreme CourtSupreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
, but that court regarded the life sentence as written in such a way that Arklöv's confession would not change anything. The petition was rejected. At the same time Arklöv said he had abandoned his Nazi beliefs and had contacted the Exit
Exit (group)
Exit is the name of a Swedish and a German anti-Nazi organisation, as well as another Swedish organisation with broader goals. The German anti-Nazi organisation was modelled on the Swedish one...
group for support. Arklöv is serving his life sentence at the Kumla High Security Prison
Kumla prison
Kumla prison is a prison facility in Kumla Municipality, Sweden. It was opened in 1965 and is one of the country's biggest prisons. Kumla is one of three high security prisons in Sweden holding risk inmates . On March 18, 2009, a new supermax facility was opened inside the Kumla Prison.-References :...
. He is an artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, and had seven paintings put out on an exhibition for prison art at Långholmen
Långholmen
Långholmen is an island in central Stockholm, between Södermalm and Kungsholmen.Långholmen is a green oasis in the city, and a popular spot for walks, picnics and swimming. The small beaches, located right outside the former prison, are usually crowded in summer. However, up until 1975, Långholmen...
in Stockholm.