A woman from Malmö, married to the imprisoned criminal imam Hussein al-Jibury, must repay over 1.4 million kronor in incorrectly paid LSS support. The municipality’s decision came after anonymous video clips revealed that her mobility did not correspond to the information she had provided. The incident exposes flaws in how municipalities exchange information – something that allowed the woman to continue receiving benefits despite previous decisions to withdraw support in Umeå.
The woman initially lived in Umeå, where she was granted extensive LSS assistance. However, the decision was revoked after the Security Police noticed that she was performing tasks that did not align with the disability she had claimed. Umeå municipality upheld its decision throughout the court process, where the municipality also prevailed.
Despite much of the case documents being public – with the exception of certain medical information – the withdrawal was never known to Malmö city when the family later moved there and the woman reapplied.
New municipality – new benefits
When the woman arrived in Malmö, the case handlers chose to approve her application. The municipality did not bother to obtain Umeå’s previous decision and thus did not know that her LSS support had already been stopped once.
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Unit manager Kristina Saunders blames the general confidentiality between municipalities for complicating information exchange. However, it is not clear if this was the case in the specific case.
Furthermore, she describes that each municipality must make its own decision and claims that information can only be shared between municipalities if the applicant gives explicit consent. She also states that the administration only discloses what the law allows.
Video exposed significant discrepancies
Malmö city’s investigation began only when two anonymously submitted video clips appeared at the Disability Support Administration. The material showed the woman in a parking lot in Malmö where her mobility appeared to be significantly greater than what she had described during home visits.
The case handlers had previously been informed that she could barely use her arms and hands and that she could not perform basic tasks such as showering or dressing. The municipality writes: “She stated that she could only lift her arms a few centimeters from her knee.“
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The videos showed something entirely different. According to the municipality’s description, the woman could, among other things, maneuver her wheelchair, bend forward, lift footrests, and get into a car: “From the videos, it is evident that NN … can independently sit in a car, reach for the seatbelt, fasten it, and then lean out to close the wide-open door.“
By that time, Malmö had already paid out 1,413,953 kronor in taxpayer-funded personal assistance compensation to the woman, in addition to what she had previously received in Umeå.
The municipality demands repayment – won in court
The woman opposed repayment and appealed the municipality’s demand to the Administrative Court in Malmö. However, the municipality prevailed in court. The court stated: “[The wife] … has caused the economic support for personal assistance to be incorrectly provided.“
In the court documents, Malmö city emphasizes that it does not deny that the woman has medical issues, but the information provided about how the issues affect her daily life has been far from accurate. If Malmö had known about Umeå’s previous assessment, the application would have been rejected from the start.
The invoice for repayment was sent in the summer of 2023 but remains unpaid and is now with the Enforcement Authority. It is unclear whether it will ever be possible to reclaim taxpayers’ money.
Connections to Islamist network
The woman is married to Hussein al-Jibury, one of the imams whom the government has decided to deport as a threat to national security. He is currently serving a multi-year sentence for serious financial crimes linked to a preschool network within an Islamist network.
The benefit-fraudulent and now repayment-obligated wife served on the board of the network for almost 20 years. There, too, she performed tasks that, according to the description of her disability provided to the authorities, should have been physically impossible to perform.
When Expressen attempted to obtain information on how Malmö had worked to verify the woman’s background or whether any police report had been filed, the municipality refused, citing confidentiality rules. The woman herself has not wanted to answer the newspaper’s questions.