A man who sparked violent protests after burning the Quran has been shot dead in Sweden, according to local media reports.
Salwan Momika, 38, is reported to have been killed in an apartment in Södertälje, Stockholm, on Wednesday evening.
Unrest broke out after Mr Momika set fire to a copy of Islam’s holy book outside Stockholm Central Mosque in 2023.
Stockholm police said in a statement that five people had been arrested after a man in his 40s was shot dead overnight.
A Stockholm court was due to rule on Thursday whether Momika was guilty of inciting ethnic hatred.
It postponed the ruling until February 3, saying that “because Salwan Momika has died, more time is needed.”
Police said in a statement they had been alerted to a shooting in the city of Sodertalje, where Momika lived.
The shooting occurred indoors and when police arrived they found a man who had been “hit by shots and the man was taken to hospital”, the statement said.
In a later update, police said the man had died and a murder investigation had been opened.
Several media outlets identified the deceased as Momika, and reported that the shooting may have been broadcast live on social media.
In August, Momika, along with co-protester Salwan Najem, was charged with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in the summer of 2023.
According to the charge sheet, the duo desecrated the Koran, including burning it, while making derogatory remarks about Muslims — on one occasion outside a Stockholm mosque.
Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries were strained by the pair’s protests.
Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion.
In August of that year, Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of five after the Koran burnings had made the country a “prioritised target”.
The Swedish government condemned the desecrations while noting the country’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly laws.
In October 2023, a Swedish court convicted a man of inciting ethnic hatred with a 2020 Koran burning, the first time the country’s court system had tried the charge for desecrating Islam’s holy book.
Prosecutors have previously said that under Swedish law, the burning of a Koran can be seen as a critique of the book and the religion, and thus be protected under free speech.
However, depending on the context and statements made at the time, it can also be considered “agitation against an ethnic group.”
