Egyptian Trans Woman Who Gassed Her Children to Death in Södertälje to Be Placed in Women's Prison

An Egyptian man presenting as a woman, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for gassing his two children to death in Södertälje, will now be placed in a women’s prison. The decision was made after he underwent a legal gender change while in prison. This is made possible by the new gender recognition law, which came into effect under Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (Moderate Party) and allows residents to easily change their legal gender in the national registry.

The case emerged in April 2024, becoming one of the most widely reported child murders in modern times. When the children’s mother returned to their home in Södertälje, she found her two children—both under the age of ten—dead inside the residence. The children’s father, then 38 years old, was arrested shortly after and confessed to the crimes.

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The investigation revealed that the children had been killed by suffocation with helium. The father, named Paulus Abdelshahed from Egypt, was later sentenced to life imprisonment for the double murder, a sentence confirmed by the court after an extensive legal process.

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Court documents state that Abdelshahed is said to suffer from an identity disorder linked to gender dysphoria. According to the documents, he identifies as transsexual, something that is expressed by presenting as a woman and wearing women’s clothing.

Arabic man’s women’s clothing. Photo: Police

After sentencing, Abdelshahed was placed in Tidaholm Prison, a maximum-security facility for male inmates only. While incarcerated, he applied for a legal gender change, an application that was later approved by the Swedish Tax Agency. With the decision, both name and personal identity number were changed, which affected his placement within the Prison and Probation Service.

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The gender change was made possible by the new legal gender law, which recently came into force in Sweden and simplifies changing one’s gender in the population registry. The law was pushed through by, among others, the Moderate Party under Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, but was opposed by the Christian Democrats and the Sweden Democrats.

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The reform has also had repercussions within the Prison and Probation Service, where legal gender is now a significant factor in decisions on prison placement. In this case, it meant that the person sentenced to life imprisonment could no longer remain in a facility for men. The Egyptian child murderer will instead be placed among women, according to TV4.

According to the authority’s assessment, this is necessary so that the individual may participate in communal activities with other inmates in a placement matching the legal gender.

The trans woman gassed her children to death. Photo: Police

Lied to Get Asylum in Sweden

The Egyptian man came to Sweden in 2009 and applied for asylum, claiming he was a Coptic Christian at risk of persecution in his home country. In his application, he claimed that he had been accused of rape after a relationship with a woman who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity, and that both her family and the Muslim Brotherhood were after him.

However, the Swedish Migration Agency determined that the situation for Coptic Christians in Egypt did not itself grant asylum and found the man’s story not credible. The application was rejected, as were subsequent appeals in court.

Despite repeated rejections, the man reapplied for a residence permit. Only after marrying a woman living in Sweden and having children was he, several years later, granted permanent residency.

After the double murder of his children, the Arab man admitted during police questioning that his claims of threats and persecution on religious grounds in his asylum application were untrue, and that the story he gave Swedish authorities was built on lies.