The article seemed sparse on the details, so I googled it and here’s the key details, taken from a couple of other articles I found:
The teenager was between 15 and 17 when the offences were committed
The Swedish case was also being watched for another reason: whether someone sitting behind a computer could be held responsible for violent crimes physically carried out by somebody else.
The court decided they could. Senior prosecutor Jenny Ostling said that finding could become important as authorities deal with similar cases.
The now-18-year-old is being convicted, among other things, of orchestrating a high-profile knife attack in the Stockholm suburb of Hässelby last year, when another young person within the 764 movement attacked an older man.
He has been jailed for more than 10 years for attempted murder, rape and other violent crimes despite carrying them out from behind a screen.
The 18-year-old, known publicly only as “Chai,” targeted young people online and pressured them into harming themselves and carrying out sexual acts.
Among his victims was a young person in Germany who was harmed so severely that they nearly died. He was also convicted of sexual and violent offences against a teenage girl in Australia.
How do Swedish courts feel about this? I’m sure that in the US this would be overturned on appeal. While he might have caused the crimes to happen, he himself did not commit them. He committed extortion.
If there was a murder, a felony murder rule would mean he could be charged for that, but unless Sweden has laws covering more indirect crimes I don’t know how this conviction would stand.
Apparently there are supreme court decisions on these types of sexual crimes from before (from what swedish public service says) that they used, and further claimed the same rulings should apply to violent crimes. I have no doubt this will be appealed though, and might also go to the supreme court for ruling.
How do I read the article?
Don’t tell The Guardian, but their block is very easy to bypass: open link in firefox, press reader view button. There you go.
How do you commit violent crimes online?
They extorted the victims and forced them to egage in sexual and violent acts
