Syrian asylum seeker ‘pushes widow, 91, down stairs mugging her as she visits husband’s grave’
An asylum seeker who was caught on CCTV pushing a 91-year-old woman down a flight of stairs is set to be deported.
Karam Kanjo was seen grabbing his elderly victim on a flight of stairs in Sollentuna station, eight miles northwest of Stockholm, Sweden.
The 26-year-old entered Sweden during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015 and was on parole after raping a woman.
He was caught on CCTV assaulting the elderly victim as she made her way to her husband’s grave on August 29 this year.
In the footage, the victim is seen struggling before the pair tumble down the stairs as he grips her necklaces. A witness to the attack is seen running for safety, leaving the elderly woman behind.
Kanjo then stands up and pulls her chains from her, before walking away and leaving the elderly woman lying on the ground as two female commuters run down the stairs to assist her.
When interviewed by Swedish detectives, the victim said she was petrified by the episode and had never experienced violence like that in her life.
Kanjo was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, and was ordered to be deported back to Syria after he was convicted of aggravated robbery, as well as a violation of Sweden’s knife laws and a drug offence. On top of this, he has to pay her 93,100 Swedish Krona (£6,700) in damages.
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Kanjo has perpetrated at least 19 crimes since he entered the country in 2015, including aggravated theft and attempted aggravated theft in 2018 and 2020.
He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for raping a woman in 2021, but was released on parole with nearly a year of his sentence left.
A judge told the court: “It appears to be a lucky coincidence that [the victim] did not suffer very serious injuries in the fall. Although no legal certificate or the like has been presented in the matter, the court considers that, with regard to [the victim’s] age, it is clear that the violence Karam Kanjo used against her was life-threatening.”
Despite him fighting to overturn the deportation order, Swedish authorities told Attunda district court that his “connection to Sweden is… very weak.” According to court documents, he will also be prohibited from returning to Sweden after he is deported.
It comes as Sweden’s coalition government between the Moderate party and the hard-right Sweden Democrats has increasingly restricted laws regarding asylum seekers.
New migration minister Johan Forssell recently said: “We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our migration policy.”
Sweden Democrats politician, Nima Gholam Ali Pour, an Iranian refugee himself, told the Daily Mail: ‘”Sweden has had very difficult problems with immigration in recent years. We have areas that are 90 per cent immigrants who don’t accept Swedish values and where ethnic Swedes have had to move out.
“Most people don’t want Sweden to become like the Middle East. And why should we receive more migrants when we can’t integrate those who are already here?”