The background to the incident was that the plaintiffs told the police about the defendant's involvement in a murder in Boden in December 2019.
According to the Court of Appeal, this was the reason why two men in March this year, masked and armed with knives, entered an apartment on Porsön where the plaintiffs were together with several other people.
Parried deadly stabs to the neck
One of the masked men attacked the plaintiffs with a large, machete-like knife.
The Court of Appeal has now found that the plaintiffs only by parrying the blow with their arm avoided being hit by a fatal blow to the neck or head.
- A stab with such a powerful knife against the neck has typically seen a deadly intention, says the court's chairman, Court of Appeal President Erik Sundström.
12 years imprisonment and life imprisonment
The district court sentenced the man to four years in prison for aggravated assault and aggravated assault in court.
However, the Court of Appeal considers that it has been a case of attempted murder and sentences the man to 12 years in prison and life imprisonment for attempted murder and aggravated assault in court.
- If the blow had hit the neck and the plaintiffs had died, it would have been a question of a murder that resulted in life imprisonment, especially as the motive was to avenge information provided in a previous police investigation.
To take revenge for someone talking to the police is a serious crime, says Sundström.
Receives SEK 100,000 in damages
It is not proven that the other of the two knife-wielding men understood that it would be a matter of lethal violence.
He is therefore convicted of, among other things, aggravated assault for his participation and receives 3.5 years in prison and deportation - the same assessment and sanction as the district court did.
Plaintiffs receive SEK 100,000 in damages for the violation of the attempted murder.
The Court of Appeal agrees with its ruling.