Eritrean failed asylum seeker turned murderer Abraham Ukbagabir claim in an interview that he wants to “forget” his killing of a 55-year-old woman and her 28-year-old son in an Ikea in 2015 and said, “shit happens”.
The 37-year-old, who was convicted of murdering a woman and her son in an Ikea in the city of Västerås, opened up about his past in Eritrea and brushed off the murder in a new interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen.
On the day of the murder, August 10th, 2015, Ukbagabir described “not feeling well” and told of how he had been previously rejected for asylum seven different times in three separate countries.
He claimed that if his application were rejected, he would go to Malta but noted he did not have the cash available at the time.
When asked about the murder and how he thinks of it today, the failed asylum seeker said: “Shit happens! I understand that it’s not a good thing. But I want to forget this.”
Ukbagabir said that he did not kill the pair in order to remain in Sweden in prison, saying: “It is not like that. It was not good. It’s a misunderstanding and I did not see the consequences. Today I would not have done it. It is now something I live with. It just is. It just happened.”
The failed asylum seeker was also asked why he had randomly chosen two innocent people to murder, to which he replied: “The thought was that they would come to paradise and meet God.”
For almost a year, Ukbagabir has been pressuring the Swedish government to allow him to return to Eritrea and serve his sentence in his home country.
While specialists and lawyers have condemned the situation in Eritrean prisons, the 37-year-old said he wants to return regardless. “I’m not afraid of being detained in Eritrea. I know my country. Whatever happens there I accept it. God may decide,” he said.
“My life’s biggest mistake was to leave Eritrea. This country is not for me. I have tried everything to stay here, but now I realise I do not belong here. My place on earth is Eritrea,” he added.