Woman charged with murder announcements on Telegram

In early July, the police's cyber unit managed to crack an alias on the Telegram app that posted several ads seeking people willing to commit murder or carry out bombings for payment.

Among other things, it read "Jappish Sweden 150-2 rabbits", which means that a murder would be rewarded with 150,000-2,000,000 kroner. If the person was caught in the act, the advertiser promised that the money would be paid to the next of kin.

The ads were in an open channel and, according to the police, function as a tool in the "crime-as-a-service" scheme, as a marketplace where criminal networks pay to get others to commit serious crimes.

Three days later, a 25-year-old woman was wanted who the police believed was behind the alias. Another two days later, she was arrested at the travel center in Uppsala.

- We want to be as quick as possible when it comes to this type of crime to prevent her from simply getting a pacifier, says prosecutor Micael Ehrencrona.

At the time of the arrest, the woman was holding the phone with which the ads were allegedly created. Now she is being charged on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder by having tried to get 1,468 people to commit serious acts of violence.

- It is a summary of members in the various closed groups on Signal, where it is also advertised. We cannot see how many people have been reached by the advertisements on Telegram, says Micael Ehrencrona.

The woman denies any crime and has not wanted to answer questions during interrogation.

It is not known if any executor has tapped into any of the ads.

- We have not been able to see if there was any subsequent chat between her and any of the other members. It could have been zero who took a bite, it could have been 500 - we have no idea, says Micael Ehrencrona.

On July 1 this year, a new law came into effect in Sweden that gives the police the ability to force social media platforms to remove criminal ads within an hour. If this is not done, the company risks heavy fines.