Sweden releases suspects held in killing of anti-Islam campaigner

A Swedish prosecutor said on Friday he had decided to release from detention five suspects who were held over the killing on Wednesday of an anti-Islam campaigner.

Salwan Momika, 38, an Iraqi refugee who had burned the Holy Quran in public on several occasions, was shot dead in a house in Sodertalje town near Stockholm, and Sweden's prime minister on Thursday said the killing could be linked to a foreign power.

While five suspects were initially apprehended by police, the suspicion against them had weakened as the investigation progressed, Senior Prosecutor Rasmus Oman said in a statement on Friday.

The five were, however, still subject to further investigation, Oman said.

Momika had stood trial in Sweden after he burned and desecrated copies of the Holy Quran, the Muslim holy book, in public and in social media broadcasts, and a verdict in the case had been due just hours after the killing.

Sweden in 2023 raised its terrorism alert to the second-highest level and warned of threats against Swedes at home and abroad after the desecration incidents, most of them by Momika, outraged Muslims and triggered threats.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2023 that people who desecrate the Holy Quran should face the "most severe punishment" and that Sweden had "gone into battle-array for war on the Muslim world" by supporting those responsible.