A Green Party lay judge wanted the Yemeni man who threatened to burn his former wife and their child to be allowed to stay in Sweden. He also wanted to acquit the man of one of the threats and change the charge from honor oppression to gross violation of a woman’s integrity. However, the majority in the district court mainly sided with the prosecutor and sentenced the man to prison and deportation.

Samnytt has previously reported on Yemeni national Yaqoob Qaed Hamood Moncer Al-Haidari, 41, who was charged with honor oppression after assaulting, threatening, harassing, and controlling the mother of his child. He was also prosecuted for several cases of perverting the course of justice as well as child abuse.

Among the incidents forming the basis for the indictment was a message that Yaqoob sent to his former wife in which he threatened to burn both her and their child.

On another occasion, he allegedly hit the woman on the shoulder 3–4 times and threatened to hit her on the head with a glass bottle. In a recording from the incident, he can be heard calling her a “whore” and a “street whore.” Children can be heard crying in the same recording.

READ MORE: Yaaqoob threatened to burn wife and children – prosecuted for honor oppression: “I swear to God”

Green Party Lay Judge Wants Acquittal on One Charge

One of the lay judges, Green Party member Kim Bergström, wanted to acquit the man of one of the threats against the woman and change the charge from “honor oppression” to “gross violation of a woman’s integrity.”

In his dissenting opinion, he argued, among other things, that the threat to execute his children and open the gates of hell had not been substantiated.

He argued that the expression might have a “different meaning in Arabic” and that “it is completely obvious that the expressions do not have the meaning a literal reading of the Swedish translation implies.”

He pointed out, among other things, that Yaqoob could not literally “open the gates of hell.”

READ MORE: Arab parents prosecuted for systematic honor oppression – beat and humiliated daughter after meal with male friend

Green Party Politician: No Honor Motive

Bergström also did not consider it proven that there was an honor motive behind the alleged acts. He claimed that references to honor that occur are “few” and, in his view, are merely expressions such as “I am an honorable man.”

However, there are considerably more connections to the honor motive that Bergström does not mention in his dissenting opinion. Among other things, Yaqoob had written to the woman that “a whore must not talk about honor.”

In an audio recording, he is heard saying:

“If you want it with respect and honor, then let’s finish things, and the ending should be with honor and respect. If you want it with shamelessness, then I will release the Jew’s vein. By God, I will release it and call a nation with the creed: there is no god but God.”

READ MORE: Arab parents convicted of honor-related oppression and violence against daughter

Wanted to Stop the Deportation

For Green Party member Kim Bergström, it was not enough to change the criminal classification of honor oppression and acquit the man of one of the threats. He also wanted to allow him to stay in Sweden.

He argued that one of the interviews conducted with one of the children showed that “it is in the children’s interest that they should have the opportunity to meet their father again in the future.”

He also wrote that a different witness statement showed that the relationship between the children and their father before the “discord” was very good and that “a discord and, apparently, poor mental health on the part of the defendant temporarily disrupting this is not surprising.”

Bergström therefore wanted Yaqoob to be allowed to remain in Sweden with reference to “the best interests of the child”—despite the fact that he was convicted of crimes committed against his own children.

READ MORE: Prosecutor wanted to deport serious criminal immigrant – S lay judge Hugo said no

Green Party Member Doesn’t Get His Way

But that’s not what happened. In the verdict now announced against Yaqoob, the court finds the charges substantiated on most counts; he is thus convicted of honor oppression, two counts of child abuse, and one count of perverting the course of justice. He was acquitted of one count of child abuse and one count of perverting the course of justice.

The district court considers that the total penal value amounts to one year and six months in prison. The prosecutor had also requested that he be deported for life, something the court partially grants.

As he was not convicted on all counts, they consider the penal value corresponds to deportation with a ten-year re-entry ban. He is also to pay damages of 100,000 SEK to the woman and 8,000 SEK to each child.

READ MORE: Deportation would “harm the children” – that’s why the Syrian child rapist gets to stay