STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Swedish police car crash that killed Swedish artist Lars Vilks last year was an accident, the Swedish government said Wednesday, not an attack directed at the cartoonist who had been living under police cover since his questionable 2007 Prophet comic strip. Muhammad.
A tire that exploded caused the motive force of the unidentified police car Vilks was carrying to lose the vehicle, which hit a truck on Oct. 4, the Swedish government said in a statement. The twist of fate killed 3 people, adding the 75-year-old. -old cartoonist.
Since Vilks faced death threats for his drawings and in the past had faced assassination attempts, the twist of fate raised the question of whether the twist of fate was a terrorist attack rather than a twist of fate.
But the Swedish prosecutor’s office said it was “a tragic twist of fate” when it announced the closure of the investigation into the Oct. 4 twist of fate after a “thorough analysis, with a technical investigation at the scene and the questioning of witnesses. “
DOSSIER – Swedish artist Lars Vilks is photographed on a stopover in Warsaw, Poland, for the opening of an exhibition with some of his works on August 27, 2021. Swedish government says a tire that exploded powered the driving force of the unidentified police car Swedish artist Lars Vilks lost control last year and crashed head-on into a truck. The October 4 accident killed 3 people, in addition to the 75-year-old cartoonist. Vilks had faced death threats and had been living under police cover since his questionable 2007 comic strip of the Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)
“In short, it most likely exploded a tire from the police vehicle and then lost the motive power of the vehicle, which crossed the street and hit the truck head-on,” Chief Prosecutor Per Nichols said. . ” The thorough investigation now shows that no crime has been committed. “
Parallel to the prosecution’s investigation, the police had conducted an initial investigation into a homicide imaginable in the case. That investigation, which was also closed Wednesday, concluded it was an accident.
Vilks was largely unaware outside Sweden before his drawing of Muhammad. At home, he was best known for building a driftwood sculpture in a nature reserve in southern Sweden without permission, sparking a long legal battle. It fined, but the beach sculpture — a mess of chaotically nailed wood in combination — still attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year.
The artist’s life changed drastically after drawing a comic strip of Muhammad with the body of a dog. Conservative Muslims regard dogs as impure, and Islamic law opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable ones, for fear that it will lead to idolatry.
In 2010, two men tried to set fire to his home in southern Sweden and in 2014, a Pennsylvania woman pleaded guilty to a plot to kill him.
The following year, a seminar on freedom of expression attended by Vilks in Copenhagen, Denmark, was attacked by a sniper who killed a Danish film director and injured 3 policemen.
Vilks, who was widely suspected of being the target of this 2015 attack, was taken away unharmed by bodyguards. The gunman then killed a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue and wounded two other officials before he was killed in an exchange of fire with police.
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Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.
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