Confessed killer remains unrepentant
The trial of Rahmi Sahindal, the Kurdish immigrant father charged with the murder of his daughter in January, begins in the district court of the Swedish city of Uppsala on Tuesday. Observers see the trial as one of the most high-profile criminal cases in Sweden since the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme.
The defendant, an immigrant from a small Kurdish village in Turkey, settled in Sweden in 1981. He has already confessed to police that he shot and killed his daughter Fadime Sahindal on January 21.
Sahindal told police that his daughter had brought shame to himself and his family by dating a Swedish boy.
The killing of Fadime Sahindal has sparked widespread debate in Sweden and elsewhere on the successes and failures of integrating immigrants into Swedish society. There had been awareness before that some immigrants find it impossible to accept the idea that their children will adopt Swedish attitudes and behaviour; however, the killing of Fadime underscored the problem in the most dramatic way possible.
The Swedish Government has now decided to initiate a programme aimed at fighting the problems caused by cultural differences.
Like all immigrants, Rahmi Sahindal dreamed of prosperity and a good life in a new country. He worked long hours at a laundry in Uppsala, and dreamed of buying a car.
However, not everything went according to plan. Rahmi found it difficult to learn Swedish, and became increasingly dependent on his children - especially his daughter Fadime - to manage in his day-to-day life.
Fadime served as her father's interpreter at driving school. However, the illiterate Rahmi never succeeded in getting a driving licence.
Having grown up in a very patriarchal environment Rahmi found it humiliating to have to resort to his daughter's help. He also could not understand why his daughter wanted to live her own life according to Swedish norms.
When Fadime fell in love with a young Swede, it was the last straw for her father. With the help of his son he unsuccessfully tried to bring her back into line.
In 1998 Fadime's father and brother were convicted of illegally threatening Fadime. The court found that they had threatened to kill her.
Fadime moved from Uppsala to Östersund to study and to avoid her father. On the evening of January 21 she came to Uppsala to meet her mother and sister before leaving for a study trip to Africa.
Rahmi heard about his daughter's visit and came to the apartment with a pistol. He shot Fadime in the hallway.
In a police interrogation Fadime's mother said that she had pleaded with Rahmi to shoot her instead of Fadime. The mother also tried to grab her husband's hand, but it was too late.
Rahmi told police that he had considered killing Fadime for about half a year. He said that he felt bad and was not able to resolve the issue any other way. He has expressed no remorse for the killing.
Rahmi Sahindal has insisted that he acted alone. His own lawyer suspects otherwise. Nevertheless, the prosecutor in the case is taking the father at his word. Most observers expect that he will get a life sentence.
Under Swedish law nobody can be convicted of murder on the basis of a confession alone. However, in this case the prosecutor has a motive, a murder weapon, and witnesses. Psychiatrists have said that Rahmi was not acting under diminished mental capacity when he shot his daughter.
The tragedy has raised questions around the world, about how successful the Swedish policy of integration of immigrants has been, considering this extreme manifestation of culture shock.
In the intense debate it has been pointed out that native-born Swedes have also killed their children, and many immigrants, especially Kurds, feel that they have been unfairly branded by the case.
The publicity that has been unleashed by the Fadime case is unlikely to end with the court's verdict.
