Sweden charges four over hip hop star killing
STOCKHOLM: Swedish prosecutors on Tuesday charged four people over the 2024 killing of a rapper who had been named the country's hip hop artist of the year the month before his death.
Masked 26-year-old rapper C.Gambino -- whose real name was Karar Ramadan, and not to be confused with American rapper Childish Gambino -- was the victim of a shooting in June 2024.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said two men were being charged with 'murder or aiding and abetting murder, as well as aggravated weapons offences' over the shooting in a parking garage in the city of Gothenburg.
A third man was charged with 'aggravated protecting a criminal', while a fourth was charged with the same crime plus 'aiding and abetting murder'.
'The act is both ruthless and premeditated. It was also committed as part of a conflict between two networks that has been ongoing for several years,' prosecutor Shahrzad Rahimi said in a statement, adding that there was 'no direct evidence that the victim personally belonged to the network'.
C.Gambino was named hip hop artist of the year at the 2024 Swedish recording industry's Grammis Awards.
Another award-winning Swedish rapper, Einar, was shot and killed in Stockholm in a gang conflict in October 2021.
The Scandinavian country has struggled to contain surging gang violence in recent years, with shootings and bombings now weekly occurrences across the country.
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