Two migration-background men involved in the torture of two underage boys at a cemetery in Solna, Sweden, have avoided the maximum sentence for their convictions.
This week, a court found Mohammed El Hani and Ali Jahani guilty of aggravated robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated rape, and assault.
Amin El Hani, who was born in Sweden to migrants who came from Tunisia, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison and received an age discount on his sentence for being 18 when the crime took place.
According to a report from Nyheter Idag, he will likely only serve three years and seven months due to Sweden’s policy of allowing probation two-thirds of the way through a sentence.
Ali Jahani, born in Iran but now a Swedish citizen, was sentenced to nine years in prison but will likely be eligible for release in six years. As he was 21 at the time of the crime, he could not get a youth discount on his sentence.
The news outlet noted that it would not be possible to revoke citizenship and deport Jahani to Iran due to current Swedish legislation.
According to Nyheter Idag, the maximum penalty for the crimes was only 13 years, but the judge would not hand even that term down, despite a large body of evidence including DNA, electronic evidence from mobile phones, and credible testimony from the victims.
The torture took place in August 2020, with the two underaged boys later describing how the two men had tortured them from 11 p.m. to around 9 a.m. the following day.
According to the boys, the men claimed to be part of the “Death Squad” gang and threatened them while taking them to a nearby cemetery. They then forced the boys to strip naked and made one lay on his stomach as one of the men stood on his head.
The men then also tortured the boys with cigarette lighters. After threatening to break one of the victim’s necks, Amin El Hani sexually assaulted one of them.
Both boys were later made to lie in makeshift graves that the migration-background men had forced them to dig. They feared that they would be buried alive before they finally were able to escape.