On March 16, 2023, Hässelby in northwestern Stockholm is shaken by one of the most violent bombings in modern times. It takes around 200 grams of dynamite to completely destroy a car - the bomb that explodes this night consists of 15 kilos.
The forces at play are incomprehensible. On the morning after the crime, a woman who lives around 30 meters from the detonation site tells DN that an inner wall in her home moved closer to a decimetre.
Before the explosion, Nettan, Pär and Jocke lived a quiet life in the sleepy terraced block. None of them were physically injured in the bombing. But they were falling apart inside. Each in their own way.
Pär has been tormented by stress, anger, fear and frustration. He is convinced that the explosion and its aftermath shortened his life. He says that the resilience that previously protected against small everyday problems is completely gone.
Pär is broad-shouldered and sturdy in an old-fashioned way. But on the inside, he is fragile. The other day he was completely terrified when a dog barked at him. More is not needed these days.
- Now I receive SEK 20,000 in compensation for violation from the Crime Victims' Authority. I requested 36,000. Then I get approximately 22,000 in victim compensation, of which 11,000 kroner is for lost income, he says.
- If I had known that after all this negotiation I would get half of what I thought we agreed on, I would never have filed a police report.
It wasn't worth it?
- No no no! Not by a long shot.
The sum that Pär receives in compensation for infringement is justified by the fact that he was not at home when the explosion occurred. He was in the family's summer cottage because he had to work. He describes it as everything went black when Nettan called and told him what had happened. The time after that he was on sick leave for a long time because he felt so bad. Mostly part-time so that his business wouldn't go under. The company lost half its turnover. Now he has sold his share and is "sort of retired", as he puts it.
Pär is angry that it is precisely the Crime Victims' Agency that is so zealous in its assessments. He does not think that the authority lives up to the promise that the name suggests.
- The Crime Victims' Authority has its own doctors who will sit and assess whether I have felt unwell from the explosion, or whether I have become ill from something else.
His neighbor Jocke was also not at home at the time of the explosion. He was on a business trip in the US while his then 19-year-old daughter was alone in the townhouse.
- In retrospect, I can say that I would have done anything to be at home when the explosion happened. I was on the other side of the world when I got in touch with my child, says Jocke and clears his throat.
He too has received SEK 20,000 in compensation for infringement.
- My daughter screamed in agony. When I am assessed as a crime victim, it is considered a mitigating circumstance that I was not present at the time of the explosion. It is deeply offensive.
Jocke's daughter receives SEK 80,000 in compensation for violation.
Nettan and daughter Natalie were at home when it rained. Nettan says she is grateful for that.
- I would have had such anxiety otherwise. Now me and Natalie could support each other, says Nettan, who herself was smiling and sleeping in the terraced house when the bomb exploded.
- I still do not know what I will receive in compensation. It should be measured and evaluated.
Daughter Natalie was sleeping just a few meters from the detonation site. She flew a meter in her bed when it rained and receives SEK 80,000 in compensation. Her life may well have been saved by a blackout curtain that was pierced by shards of glass after the blast. However, Natalie is not considered to have been the victim of an attempted murder and thereby misses out on large sums in compensation. The family against whom the crime was committed received a total of one million kroner in compensation in May this year.
- It is therefore believed that the perpetrators tried to kill the family that was the target, but not the rest of us. The family should of course get their compensation, but it is insulting that we hardly get anything at all based on a criminal classification, says Nettan.
Bo Eriksson, a lawyer at the Crime Victims' Authority, points out that the Board for Criminal Damage Compensation has recently developed practice regarding compensation for violations after explosions.
- Previously, those who were not at home, but who lost their entire home, had received no compensation at all for violation. Now you can get compensation, and in this case it has been assessed at SEK 20,000.
He points out that the suffering experienced by Pär and Jocke after the explosion is affected by another type of compensation.
- There is a compensation called burning and pain that can be provided if you have, for example, suffered a psychological personal injury such as PTSD and which you can also apply for. Compensation for infringement, on the other hand, is mainly assessed objectively based on the attack itself, says Bo Eriksson.
He says the victim must have suffered a physical or mental personal injury in order for compensation for burns to be provided. In order for psychological problems to be considered a personal injury, they must be a medically demonstrable effect of the crime. For 2026, the basic amount is SEK 3,200 per month during the acute illness period. If hospitalization has been required, the amounts are higher. Jocke receives SEK 10,000 for burning and pain.
Regarding the risk that there was to Natalie's life at the time of the explosion, Bo Eriksson points out that the prosecution for attempted murder only concerned the family that was the target and that it was also on that basis that the court sentenced for attempted murder.
What do you say about Pär regretting reporting the incident to the police?
- It is very sad that he experiences it that way, says Bo Eriksson and points out that the compensation system has changed after the criticism that previously emerged after the bombing in Hässelby.
- Since September 1, 2026, new rules apply that will make the path to compensation easier for victims of crime. In many cases, you can now turn directly to the Crime Victims' Authority after a judgment.
