Culturally Enriched Violence Comes to Sandnes

As reported in last night’s news feed, an asylum seeker was stabbed to death on Wednesday at the asylum centre in Sandnes, Norway.

According to The Local, “the incident took place after a conflict involving primarily Chechen residents at the centre.” However, later reports stated that the victim was an Iranian national and the alleged perpetrator a Chechen national.

Last night a group of culture enrichers converged on the scene, wanting to get into the asylum center.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer translated an article accompanying the video below. He has this to say about the news clip:

The video shows relatives and friends of the victim. The angry crowd attacked the police when they were told that they couldn’t enter the grounds of the asylum centre.

According to the accompanying article the police had to defend themselves with batons, shields and mace. The group attacking the police consisted of approximately 30-40 individuals, mostly Kurds.

Several sources reported that the police feared that the group wanted to avenge the killing of the Iranian teenager.

I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this yet.

Many thanks to Cecilie for translating the video, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


The accompanying article from Aftenposten:

Here the police are attacked by mourners trying to visit the murder scene

The police had to use shields, batons and pepper spray when a large group of relatives and friends of the murdered teenager wanted to visit the scene of the murder, and attempted to force their way past the police.

“Anyone who enters the building this evening and possibly even later tonight will be stopped and checked,” leader of operations from the Sandnes police Johnny Johnson says to Stavanger Aftenblad.

Around 4 o’clock on Thursday afternoon, a few hundred meters away from the entrance to the asylum centre on Dale road, clashes broke out between police and a group of 30-40 men who tried to force their way into Dale asylum centre.

“The group comprised of several parties in different cars who all gave different explanations for wanting to visit the centre. We gave them permission to drive up the centre one at the time and spend five minutes there, but this order was disobeyed and several individuals tried to force their way past the police barricades,” Johnsen says.

Several police officers

According to some members of the group, who all hail from the Kurdish community in the area, they only wanted to see the place where a young Iranian was fatally stabbed Wednesday night.

The police dispatched more police patrols to the scene and eventually managed to gain control of the situation. The group of mourners were told to turn around and head back to Sandnes. They were all stopped and checked by the police before they were allowed to leave the scene.

Several were searched.

“All visitors entering the asylum centre on Thursday evening and quite possibly through the night will be checked by the police,” leader of operations Johnny Johnson told Aftenbladet’s reporter on the scene

No one was detained after the clash on Thursday night.

Fear of retaliation

“We can’t rule out that one or several individuals will try to avenge the murder of the young Iranian which took place at Dale asylum centre on Wednesday night,” the police say.

“We don’t know the identities of the other people involved nor the motive for the killing, but we realize now that more individuals are involved. That means we have to consider that revenge is a possibility,” police inspector Bjørn Andersen from Rogaland police department told Aftenbladet at the press conference on Thursday afternoon.

“And the police are prepared for retaliation?”

“Yes, we are,” Andersen says.

Denise responsibility

The man who was killed at Dale last night was a Kurd with Iranian citizenship. Police have arrested a Russian citizen with origins in Chechnya. Neither the victim nor the accused lived at Dale Asylum Centre, according to the police.

The accused individual, a male in his early twenties, has been charged with complicity to commit grievous bodily harm resulting in death, a charge that he denies.

“He doesn’t admit guilt. In the interests of the investigation, I can’t give any further details,” the accused man’s lawyer, Odd Rune Torstrup told Aftenbladet.

Video transcript:

00:09		We are standing on the Dale road; 2 to 3 hundred meters behind me is the reception centre.
00:15		Police have blocked the road to the area after receiving a tip about a group... a gang, a gathering.
00:23		A few minutes ago there was a confrontation between police and this group of persons.
00:31		We have talked with some of those who wanted to get into the area.
00:35		They said they were friends and relatives of the one who was killed last night.
00:42		The wanted to go and see the place where he was killed.
00:46		How did the police experience the situation?
00:48		It was clearly a threatening situation with a group of people wanting to force their will, but it was handled the way it should be handled.
01:13		Afterwards it was put a stop to, and they left.
01:18		I talked with several people who said ... who were friends and close relatives of the one who was killed and who wanted to see the scene.
01:28		Do you understand that they felt a need to see the place?
01:31		Yes, you could say that was part of the problem, and they were allowed to do this in an orderly manner.
01:41		But despite agreeing to do it in an orderly manner they broke the agreement, and wanted to do it their way, so it was stopped.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.