Somalian refugee, 22, ‘strangles heavily pregnant girlfriend, 20, to death,’ also killing their unborn child’ in suspected honour killing in Sweden

 

A 22-year-old Somalian refugee has murdered his seven-month-pregnant girlfriend in a suspected honour killing, police in Sweden say.

 

 

Saga Forsgren Elneborg, 20, was found strangled to death with a lamp cord at home in the city of Örebro, which is two hours from the capital Stockholm.

 

Prosecutors claim that her boyfriend, Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim, a refugee from Somalia, killed her in April last year rather than face the shame of introducing the mother of his child to his Muslim family.

 

Saga’s family said via their lawyer that it had been a ‘long and painful wait’ of over a year before Ibrahim was charged for Saga’s murder a week ago. But is yet to be charged with the murder of his unborn child.

 

 

Police released a 1,000 page arrest report containing pictures of the cord and crime scene in the bedroom, where Saga’s body was found next to her bed, reportedly buried under a marble table top.

 

 

Prosecutors state that he grew up in a household that believed dating a ‘white’ woman is ‘not okay’ and that he ‘must date a woman of the same culture.

Because of this, he concealed the two-year relationship from his mother because she would not accept it.

 

 

Text messages between Saga and Ibrahim reveal that he had planned to tell his relatives about their relationship and baby on April 28, 2023, the night of Saga’s murder.

 

 

He expressed feeling nervous about telling them and wrote: ‘Feels like I can almost feel my heartbeat all the way down to my stomach.’

 

 

Saga then told him that ‘it will be fine’. 

 

In a follow-up messaage, Saga asking him how it was going and for him to ‘talk to me’, remained unanswered.

 

State prosecutor Elisabeth Anderson alleges that Ibrahim then went to Saga’s flat, where he ‘violently’ strangled her to death with the cable of her bedside lamp, according to local outlet Aftonbladet.

 

 

Their baby boy, who weighed 1.7kg at the time and measured just 1.5ft from head to toe, also died inside Saga’s womb. 

 

 

There is no evidence to suggest that Ibrahim’s family was either involved in Saga’s murder or that they asked for her to be killed, according to local media.

 

 

Further text messages between the Saga and her alleged killer revealed that Ibrahim tried to convince his girlfriend to have an abortion shortly after she got pregnant. 

 

 

‘I know we can make it, but I won’t be able to keep my family. If it had been possible, there would have been no problem with keeping the child,’ he told her.

 

 

But Saga was excited about becoming a mother, telling him that she would have the baby, even without her boyfriend’s support, according to Anderson.

 

 

Despite her refusal to have the abortion he asked for, Ibrahim continued the relationship and planned for a future with Saga.

 

 

Anderson alleges that Ibrahim did not believe that his family would live ‘honourably’ if he had the baby with his girlfriend, but kept this from his girlfriend to not make her feel guilty and to not ‘make her take the baby away’.

 

 

The prosecutor also claims that Ibrahim’s DNA was found under Saga’s fingernails.

 

 

In the indictment, Anderson wrote: ‘Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim has killed Saga Forsgren Elneborg by suffocating and strangling her by means of pressure on her neck with an impact on the trachea and the blood supply to the head.’

 

 

She added in a press release: ‘I mean that the murder took place in an honour context because the man wanted to preserve or restore his and his family’s honour by killing the woman who was carrying his child.’

 

 

A picture of the crime scene in Saga’s bedroom shows a lovingly made crib right next to her bed, ready for the arrival of her baby son.

 

 

‘It has been and still is a difficult time for all [of] Saga’s relatives,’ said Elisabeth Massi Fritz, who represents Saga’s family.

 

 

‘The murder of Saga is a cruel and ruthless murder with an honour motive. There are many aggravating circumstances in the deed which we will highlight during the trial,’ Massi Fritz told Aftonbladet.

 

 

Ibrahim is due to go on trial for the murder on April 10, nearly a year after his girlfriend Saga was killed. The trial is expected to last 15 days.

 

 

He denies any wrongdoing and told police in an interrogation that he loved Saga and was still in disbelief over her death: ‘I have been in denial for nine months now.’