Two men from Syria have been sentenced to five years and three months in prison as well as lifetime deportation for exceptionally aggravated assault. This was decided by the Svea Court of Appeal. One of the reasons behind the assault was that a man had refused to accompany the two men to their mosque.

It was on the evening of Friday, August 8 last year that an off-duty police officer was out walking his dog in the Stockholm suburb of Kista, where he lives. He was on his way home when two men acting suspiciously caught his attention.

At the same time, sirens could be heard, blue lights were flashing between the buildings, and two marked police cars drove by. The officer suspected that the two men might be the ones his colleagues were looking for. He called the police control center to inquire further.

Apprehending the Offender

During the call with the control center, the off-duty officer received confirmation that his colleagues were indeed looking for two men matching the description. He decided to pursue them.

The off-duty police officer managed to intervene against one of the fleeing men. His police colleagues quickly arrived at the scene and assisted with the arrest.

The man who was arrested is 40 years old and comes from Syria. He put up strong resistance during the arrest, and the officers had to use pepper spray to gain control over him.

The other man, also Syrian, was captured by a police dog unit when he tried to hide in some bushes nearby.

The Assaulted Man

It turned out that the two men, Khaled Alabid and Ibrahim Alubaid, are brothers. Khaled lives in Sweden, while his brother, who was visiting, has residency in Austria.

In Husby, another suburb adjoining Kista, a 58-year-old man had recently been brutally assaulted. The two Syrian brothers, armed among other things with a wrench, were identified as the perpetrators.

The background to the brutal assault is to say the least puzzling.

The assaulted man explained that a couple of years earlier he had found some forgotten keys, jewelry, a wallet, and a mobile phone in the locker room at Nordic Wellness—the gym where he trains—and turned these in at the reception.

The owner of the items forgotten in the locker room was a 31-year-old man from Syria. He was very grateful to have his belongings returned.

Shia versus Sunni

The men did not know each other, but the 31-year-old trained at the gym together with his 40-year-old half-brother. The Syrians spoke to the 58-year-old, who is a Kurd from Iraq, in Arabic. They wanted him to come with them to their mosque: Husby Islamic Cultural Center.

“They tried to invite me to their mosque and said that if I didn’t come, I would end up in hell,” the 58-year-old said during questioning.

He was, however, not particularly interested in accompanying the men there.

“I rarely go to the mosque. I’m moderately religious, not strictly so.”

There was also another complication. While the 58-year-old is a Muslim, albeit not a very active one, he is a Shia Muslim. The two Syrians, on the other hand, are Sunni Muslims, and the mosques they attend identify with Sunni Islam.

Religious Conflict at the Gym

The fact that the men belonged to different branches of Islam led to tensions at the gym. The Syrian brothers claimed that Shia Muslims belonged to a “false sect” and asked what the 58-year-old thought about the governments in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

On one occasion in September 2024, gym staff called the police after the men had a quarrel. The investigation was dropped the following day. “It is obvious that the crime cannot be investigated,” wrote the prosecutor in the decision.

In the summer of 2025, a third half-brother entered the picture: 28-year-old Ibrahim Alubaid, who lives in Austria.

Ibrahim did not train at Nordic Wellness, but looking at WhatsApp messages he sent, he appeared to be furious about the 58-year-old man, whom he otherwise had no connection to. He wrote, “the Shia made my blood boil” and “By Allah, I will screw him if Allah wills.”

At the end of July 2025, Ibrahim flew from Austria to Sweden. And when the 58-year-old was on his way home from the gym on the evening of August 8, he was ambushed by the two Syrian men, who brutally assaulted him.

All as a result of him a few years earlier helping a man recover his belongings.

Lifetime Deportation

In December last year, the Solna District Court sentenced Khaled Alabid and Ibrahim Alubaid to five years and three months in prison and lifetime deportation for exceptionally aggravated assault.

Now that verdict has been confirmed by the Svea Court of Appeal.

In addition to prison and deportation, the men have been ordered to pay SEK 376,215 in damages to the assaulted man from Iraq.

Besides the two men, their 31-year-old half-brother was also sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for complicity in aggravated assault. According to the verdict, he informed his half-brothers and associates of the 58-year-old’s whereabouts so they could assault him.

The aggravated assault is considered to have had a so-called hate crime motive, with the 58-year-old being subjected to violence because he is a Shia Muslim.