Swedish 18-year-old sentenced for online crimes — The Guardian
In Sweden, an 18-year-old man known by the alias Chai was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for attempted murder, rape and aggravated assault committed via the internet. The victims included young people in Germany and Australia, The Guardian reports.
District court verdict
The district court found Chai guilty of two counts of attempted murder of a young person in Germany. He was also convicted of a series of sexual and violent crimes against an Australian girl, as well as other offences.
The crimes were committed when the young man was between 15 and 17 years old. According to Jenny Östling, a senior prosecutor at Sweden's national unit against international and organised crime, the sentence is among the longest possible in the country for a person of that age.
The court also found that it was possible to hold someone accountable for violent crimes even if they were committed remotely via the internet. Östling called this an important tool for investigating similar cases.
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Online coercion networks
The court found that Chai was active in online networks known for sadistic extortion of young and vulnerable people. In such communities, people are forced to create sexually explicit material or commit violent acts.
The prosecutor said that the court had properly understood the phenomenon, which she described as nihilistic violent extremism. She also mentioned Com, a collective name for a loosely connected network whose members engage in cybercrime, extortion and violence.
During the trial, a forensic psychiatric assessment found that Chai did not have a severe mental disorder at the time the crimes were committed. His lawyer, Emily Tovedal, said that the defence considers the court's assessment of a significant part of the charges to be erroneous.
According to the publication, cases linked to such networks have also been heard in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.
