Eritrean Gang Rapists Avoid Deportation After Claiming They Would be Persecuted at Home

Four migrant men from Eritrea have managed to avoid deportation from Sweden following their conviction for gang-raping a woman in Stockholm over the summer.

The four men were convicted of rape by the Södertörn District Court and will face up to five and a half years in prison but will avoid being removed from Sweden as the court claimed that they have a high risk of being persecuted once they return to their home country.

Prosecutor Axel Frick had noted during the trial of the men that they had filmed the gang rape attack, which took place in June in a forest in Flemingsberg south of Stockholm and saw the men rape the 40-year-old victim after kicking her to the ground, Expressen reports.

Two of the men had previously subjected the woman to another rape at the Flemingsberg train station in an elevator on the same day as the attack in the forested area. the victim is also said to have been intoxicated at the time.

Prosecutor Frick also called for the men to be deported and banned from returning to Sweden for at least 15 years saying, “When it comes to such a serious crime, I as a prosecutor will seek deportation. I have started from the practice that exists and the length of the crime and have landed on just the time interval of 15 years.”

While the court recognized the crimes so serious that they warranted deportation, it refused to grant a deportation order to the men as they had arrived in Sweden illegally to seek asylum after running away from military service. The Swedish Migration Agency also stated that upon their return they were likely to be persecuted.

Sweden has had similar issues with deporting other migrant criminals for years, with a 2017 report noting that just 19 per cent of foreign rapists had been deported from 2010 to 2014.

Last year, a survey of Swedish police found that 64 per cent of officers would like the government to increase the deportations of criminals.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.