A Somalian refugee has been charged with murder for allegedly killing his seven-months-pregnant Swedish girlfriend rather than face the shame of introducing her to his strict Muslim family.
Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim, 22, is charged in the alleged honor killing of 20-year-old Saga Forsgren Elneborg inside her home in Örebro, a city two hours from the capital, Stockholm, in April 2023, UK news outlet LBC reported, citing Swedish media.
He killed his girlfriend “by suffocating and strangling her by means of pressure on her neck with an impact on the trachea and the blood supply to the head,” prosecutor Elizabeth Anderson alleged in a statement.
“I mean that the murder took place in an honor context because the man wanted to preserve or restore his and his family’s honor by killing the woman who was carrying his child,” she added.
A 1,000-page arrest report includes photos of the shocking crime scene that shows a lamp cord.
Text messages between the couple revealed that Ibrahim told Elneborg shortly before her death that he would tell his family about her pregnancy — but he indicated he was nervous, local outlet Afton Bladet reported.
“Feels like I can almost feel my heartbeat all the way down to my stomach walla,” he wrote, according to the outlet.
“Just take it easy, it’ll be fine babe,” his girlfriend replied.
Ibrahim later told her he informed one relative, who supposedly took the news in stride.
But she answered: “You are not yourself, darling.” He never responded.
Anderson said the investigation found no evidence that Ibrahim had told his family anything at all about his expectant girlfriend, who had planned to move in with him a week later.
It also emerged that Ibrahim had previously suggested to Elneborg that she get an abortion.
“I know we can make it, but I won’t be able to keep my family. If it had been possible, there would have been no problem with keeping the child,” he wrote her when they learned she was pregnant, according to Afton Bladet.
Elneborg sent her last message to him shortly after midnight on April 29, according to the outlet.
“Baby, talk to me,” she wrote.
Shortly after that, he allegedly went to her home and strangled her, the prosecutor alleged.
Her unborn baby boy also was killed in the attack, officials said.
“She was so happy. She would move to a new apartment and start her life as a mother. This is the worst thing imaginable,” her mother told Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda.
There is no evidence to suggest that Ibrahim had anything to do with the crime, Anderson said.
“He never told his family about Saga or the child. But the suspect has been raised in a standard of honor, and he has learned that it is not OK for him to date a white woman,” she wrote.
“He must date a woman of the same culture. If he doesn’t, he will be excluded,” the prosecutor added.
The suspect has denied any wrongdoing and told investigators that he still loved his late girlfriend.
“I have been in denial for nine months now,” he told police.
Ibrahim will appear in court to face his murder trial on Wednesday.
