Swedish court acquits man in assault case involving Nick Alinia

A Swedish District Court has acquitted Andreas Klominek of assault following an incident on May 1 in Stockholm involving journalist Nick Alinia. The court ruled that Klominek acted under ‘putative self-defense,’ meaning he incorrectly believed his son was under attack, making his intervention not manifestly unjustifiable.

The verdict was reached by a majority of three lay judges, including Anna-Sofia Quensel, who voted to acquit. This decision stood in opposition to the professional judge, Céline Holmberg, who argued that Alinia’s actions during the intervention were not unjustifiable and rejected the claim of putative self-defense, noting the situation appeared calm before Klominek intervened.

Questions regarding judicial impartiality have been raised because Quensel, a representative of the Left Party, has professional ties to the organization Expo and connections to the group AFA. Alinia has noted that Expo has published numerous negative articles about him and that Quensel did not disclose her potential conflict of interest to the court during the proceedings.