The incident happened almost exactly one year ago, on October 4, 2018. Employees at the government office felt that it smelled of fire smoke and discovered that it had burned inside a shutter cabinet but that the fire was self extinguished. The security police launched a preliminary investigation into the attempted assassination fire and the suspicions were later directed at a man who worked temporarily in the premises. The man was arrested in February.

In interrogation, the man initially refused but then stated that he was playing with a few matches, after which a burning match went off and caught fire on some paper in the cupboard. When he failed to extinguish the fire he must have panicked and closed the door on the cabinet to stifle the fire. Then he left without checking if the fire was extinguished and "told himself it never happened".

After the investigation, the man is no longer suspected of attempted serious murder, but is now charged with gross negligence.

"I can only prove that the fire started with negligence," says Henrik Olin, Chamber Prosecutor at the Swedish National Security Goals Unit.

Denies crime

According to the fire defense's expert opinion, the fire never got attached to the cabinet, but if it did, the fire could have spread to more rooms. The smoke could have spread to large parts of the government building, thereby creating a dangerous environment for people to live in.

- Had the conditions been different, it could have been a fully developed fire, says Henrik Olin.

The suspect states that he measured very badly after what he believes was a mere accident. The man's defender, Henrik Hoffman, says his client is refusing a crime.

- I think he gave a pretty clear picture of what happened from his perspective, says Henrik Hoffman.