The African man who has been remanded in custody on suspicion of causing the death of the Swedish police officer and father, Christian Zedig, in Copenhagen, has previously been convicted of a serious stabbing incident in which he drove a knife into his victim’s heart.
According to a verdict from the Danish High Court, the now 31-year-old man—who immigrated with his family to Denmark from an African country in the 1990s—was sentenced in 2016 to seven years in prison for attempted manslaughter after stabbing a man in the chest outside a nightclub in Copenhagen.
The stab wound penetrated the chest and reached the victim’s right ventricle. According to forensic experts, the man was just minutes from dying. His heart stopped for one to two minutes before emergency personnel managed to save his life.
The appellate court upheld the previous sentence and determined that the act constituted attempted manslaughter. The penalty was seven years in prison.
According to the Danish newspaper B.T., the African man has also been previously convicted of multiple rapes in 2014.
Now, he is once again on trial, suspected of having delivered a deadly blow to Christian Zedig at Islands Brygge in Copenhagen, where people had gathered to watch a World Cup football match.
The blow from the detained African man is said to have caused a brain hemorrhage in Christian Zedig. According to reports, the force of the blow struck either the jaw or neck, causing the Swedish man to fall and suffer serious injuries. The African man denies wrongdoing.