[ad_1]
A police automotive crash that resulted within the demise of cartoonist Lars Vilks and two others final yr was an accident, Swedish authorities confirmed Wednesday.
What did the Swedish authorities say?
The Swedish authorities decided the crash in October in Markaryd was a “tragic accident” and authorities ended the probe into the occasion following “in depth evaluation, with technical investigations on the spot and the questioning of witnesses.”
The police automotive carrying Vilks was touring down the E4 freeway in southern Sweden when it collided with a truck and caught hearth. Two law enforcement officials additionally died within the occasion.
“In abstract, it most certainly {that a} tire on the police automobile exploded after which the motive force misplaced management of the automobile, which came visiting on the aspect of the street and collided head-on with the truck,” Swedish Chief Prosecutor Per Nichols stated in an announcement on-line. “The in depth investigation now exhibits no crime has been dedicated.”
Earlier suspicions of focused killing
The demise of 75-year-old Vilks had prompted suspicions of a focused terrorist assault, because the cartoonist beforehand drew controversial footage of the Prophet Muhammad.
Vilks was underneath fixed police safety previous to the crash
One of many drawings, which depicted Muhammad with the physique of a canine, was revealed by Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda in 2007. The publication led to outrage throughout the Muslim world, in nations corresponding to Iran, Pakistan and Egypt.
Vilks usually acquired demise threats for the caricatures and lived underneath police safety. There had additionally been earlier makes an attempt to kill Vilks.
An assault at a Copenhagen artwork exhibition organized by Vilks left one useless and three injured in February 2015. The taking pictures, which got here one month after the Charlie Hebdo gun rampage in Paris, was believed to have been focusing on the cartoonist.
Earlier in his life, Vilks acquired a doctorate in artwork historical past and labored as a professor on the Bergen Nationwide Academy of the Arts in Norway.
AP information company contributed to this report
[ad_2]
Source link