Iraqi Hit Police Officer With Rock - Got Citizenship and Cannot Be Deported

ÖREBRO - He came to Sweden from Iraq at 15. Six years later he took part in the Koran riots and threw a large rock at a police officer's head.

Five months after that, he was granted Swedish citizenship. That is why he cannot be deported now that he has finally been convicted.

On 15 April 2022, Danish anti-immigration politician Rasmus Paludan had a permit to hold a public rally in Örebro, which included burning a Koran. It was planned for Vivalla, a district police classify as particularly vulnerable.

That afternoon, police moved the rally to Sveaparken for security reasons. Fences and cordons went up, but the crowd in the park kept growing and people tried to force their way through. Attempts to break up the crowd achieved little.

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"I feared for my life"

Shortly after 5 pm the situation turned into a violent riot. Masked counter-protesters broke through the outer police line, moved up to the riot fences and began throwing rocks.

"It is men and women, children and old people throwing at us. I see several colleagues being led or carried away injured," one officer said of the scene.

Another described hiding behind the police buses: "I feared for my life. When I see them gathering around our vehicles, I feel there are so many of them and they are terribly driven, while they shout Allahu Akbar and keep throwing rocks."

Officer left with concussion

One officer told investigators he was standing at the front by the riot fence when a large rock hit him in the head. The blow gave him a concussion.

"I know I blacked out from that hit. I got that metallic bang in the head, the metallic taste in my mouth. After that I have half an hour to an hour with no real memory," he said.

After months of work on videos and photos from the riot, police identified the man who threw the rock in the autumn of 2023: Mohammed Adil Najm Najm, an Iraqi citizen now aged 25.

Fled to Iraq

When police searched his reported home in the spring of 2024, he was gone. He had left Sweden for Iraq in February or March that year, and police put out a wanted notice.

Only in October 2026, two and a half years later, did he return. He was arrested in a car on the way to Karlstad and has been held in custody since.

In questioning, he said he had no idea he was wanted. Shown images from the park, he first called them too blurry, then admitted that "some clips were me". He said he could not remember throwing a rock and neither admitted nor denied the crime.

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71 officers injured

On 29 October 2026, four and a half years after the riots, prosecutor Alen Islamovic charged him with aggravated sabotage against emergency services and aggravated violence against a public official.

According to the prosecutor, the rioters attacked police, rescue services and ambulance crews with massive rock-throwing, kicks and blows, with and without weapons, aimed at officers, police dogs and vehicles.

In total 71 police officers were injured, 50 of them badly enough to seek medical care, and 64 reported serious psychological effects. Eight police vehicles were damaged, four of them burned out. Damage to vehicles came to more than 2.5 million kronor, and to police equipment more than 560,000 kronor.

Citizenship after the riot

Örebro District Court agreed with the prosecutor on every point. On 9 November it convicted Najm Najm of both charges and sentenced him to two years and six months in prison.

But because he was made a Swedish citizen five months after the riot, the court cannot expel him from Sweden - despite the seriousness of the crimes.