»»I want to change. I want to be considerate of my mother. I've been very hateful. Very aggressive««

He hasn’t dressed like this before. In a white shirt, slim black pants, and snow-white sneakers. On the street, he’s always in black. Black jacket, black shoes, and black cap. The for him unusual outfit is because he’s heading into the district court in Helsingborg, Sweden.

»You have to look good when you come here«, he says.

He sends a confident look from under his black eyebrows. The side parting is, as always, perfectly straight in his well-trimmed and faded haircut, his mustache is thin and well-groomed, and a thick chain hangs around his neck. Zakaria is 17 years old and wants to come forward with his first name and photo. He wants to tell his story.

He is ready to step into the courtroom and defend himself against the accusation of having participated in one of Sweden’s major murder cases, where five young men and two younger women between the ages of 17 and 20 are indicted.

Zakaria is not accused of the murder itself but of a more subordinate role regarding planning and escape.

At 12:40 AM one night in early April last year, 33-year-old Mohammad Alwali was shot at close range in a parking lot in front of a red brick wall in the Adolfsberg neighborhood of Helsingborg. Apparently, due to criminal conflicts.

According to the prosecution, the murder was carried out by two people on a motorcycle. One of them drove and stopped right next to Alwali while the other jumped off and fired a shot in the head of Alwali. The 33-year-old fell, and the shooter then stepped forward and shot him once more in the head in what appeared to be a pure execution. The perpetrators left the scene on the motorcycle. The sequence of events is detailed in the court records from Helsingborg and was filmed by surveillance cameras in the parking lot.

Later that day, on April 5 last year, just after noon, the then 16-year-old Zakaria was stopped in a car with the two murderers by a black-clad Swedish task force armed with rifles, who arrested the three young men.

Zakaria was released again, but he was charged and later indicted for his involvement in the case. The prosecution believes he helped the two murderers on the motorcycle with surveillance of the victim and a later escape in a car he had procured for the occasion. Zakaria has denied this. He has said he had no knowledge of the murder, the perpetrators’ plans, or their escape.

Life under pressure

As a result of the indictment, he was placed about 360 kilometers from Helsingborg in a youth home, a so-called HvB home, where young people with negative behavior can be placed under educational supervision.

Today, he is 17 years old. The murder case has put his life under pressure, and he describes the last few years as a »fucked up« life.

Politiken has met Zakaria several times. One evening in March, we meet at the gate to a courtyard in a residential area in Helsingborg, where he hangs out with friends. He has been given leave from the youth home because he, along with judges from the district court, the police, and the other defendants, must participate in a reconstruction of the murder at the crime scene in Helsingborg.

He arrives to the brown housing blokcs on an electric scooter with his black cap on his head. He opens an energy drink.

»In my family’s eyes, it’s not so good with this court case«, he says.

The problem is that his mother now knows for sure that he is involved in crime to some extent.

»She says I need to think carefully now. Is it worth it? It’s not worth it, I’ve told myself. I can see my mother can’t handle it anymore«.

What does your mother say?

»She hopes the authorities realize I have nothing to do with the murder and that the truth comes out«.

He smokes an e-cigarette. He came to Sweden in 2015 as a refugee from Syria with his father and siblings; they were housed in a reception center, and his mother followed later. Since then, his father has disappeared from their lives, and Zakaria doesn’t want to say anthing else about that. He will tell that he was bullied in school and put up with it until one day when he hit back hard. That changed him.

»When they hit me, I hit back. If people talk bad about me, I confront them. Others know I can hit back against those who do something to me or those I care about«.

As a teenager in Sweden, he has climbed the hierarchy in the street environment in Helsingborg step by step.

»In the end, I had the final say. I could decide. If I said certain people shouldn’t be in the neighborhood, that’s how it was«.

He shared the environment with 13-14-year-olds hired to perform violent acts and explosions on order via communication services and transported bags potentially containing drugs, weapons, or money between different Swedish cities for the older ones.

Most of his peers take pills.

»If you take Tramadol, you’re able to pull things off. If you’re set to kill someone, Tramadol pills will make you calm and numb. There are plenty of people who exploit kids and sell drugs to them. They don’t care about the kids«.

Crime in the youth home

Politiken has visited him at the HvB home. It is an old, traditional red Swedish wooden building, located deep in the forest somewhere else in the country. From the home, it’s over an hour’s walk to the nearest train station.

»There is a cemetery right nearby. I hate it. It gives me bad thoughts«, says Zakaria.

The HvB home is one of the paradoxes in Zakaria’s life, he explains.

Swedish police have previously warned that the homes, of which there are up to 800 in Sweden, are being used by criminal networks to recruit placed teenagers. Zakaria has been offered crime.

»Offers are shared among the boys, and we are easy targets. We have nothing else to do but sit and smoke cigarettes all day. It’s hard for me to grasp that it can continue because I’ve seen what it means for those placedthere«, he says.

He is not detained, but if he leaves the home without permission, he risks being moved to a locked ward. Placed in the homes are ten boys and young men, each with their room and access to a common room. The home is staffed around the clock, and urine samples are given weekly. There are many drugs in the home. Everyone has knives, he says.

Zakaria has been moved around several HvB homes.

»Often, I’ve argued too much with others, and then I’m moved. You get tough from being placed such a place. I can’t handle being with rapists or those who have hurt women. I start thinking about my sisters or my mother«.

At one point, he confronted a young rapist at one of the homes.

»There is always a power play. You have to show you have the power. If you’re too quiet and calm, others will jump on you. At first, I was calm myself, but then others came at me. You can only handle it if you show yourself as a man«.

Young people want firearms

Sometimes he gets anxious. Especially about his mother’s reactions. At the same time, he’s angry at the social services that have placed him and at the police and the state because they suspect him of murder.

Can you do something to help yourself? Can you get a job? Can you change?

»It’s hard. It’s impossible to get a job. I want to earn money, but young immigrants never get a chance in the job market«.

He wants to train to be a car mechanic.

»I want to change. I want to be considerate of my mother. I’ve been very hateful. Very aggressive. But I’ve started to think about the consequences, and then it’s important that the state gives me an opportunity. It doesn’t, and they lie when they say they do«.

Do you have weapons?

»Everyone has access to weapons. If I wanted a gun, I could get one, but then I also have to be prepared to return favors«.

Weapons are the way to power and prestige. Weapons mean you’re seen as a serious actor and can defend your family. Zakaria knows why it has become this way.

»Young people want power. You want someone who has your back. Young people want firearms. If you have power, you have money. Without money, you lose. That’s why 13-year-olds chase money jobs on Telegram and go to Copenhagen to shoot. Money means everything. You want a good life«.

On his phone, he shows some of the countless groups on social media that deal with weapons, drugs, fraud, humiliations, gangster rumors, and job offers. When he was younger, he saw people in big cars and thought he wanted their place.

What is a good life?

»It has to be luxurious. Young people want money for weapons, watches, and expensive clothes. That’s the world you admire. It has to be like in Dubai«.

He hums some lines from a song by Swedish rapper KD:

»Jag är han som gillar utmana ödet,

Bror, vi lever i en fucked up värld«.

(I’m the one who likes to challenge fate, bro, we live in a fucked up world, ed.)

The song reminds him of his own life.

»Everyone listens to Swedish rap. You can relate to it. You get motivated. There are songs that push you to do something. They excite you«.

In the morning, he can’t listen to rap. When he sits with a cigarette and morning coffee, he listens to Fairuz, a classic traditional singer from Lebanon. He can’t listen to rap in the evening either, when he has to sleep.

»I get too caught up in the lyrics, and it messes with my brain. In the evening, I listen to recitations of Quran verses. It’s calming«.

Who should I be?

Zakaria is looking for a way out. He has considered disappearing. If you want to leave the gangster life in Sweden, you have to get off the street. Maybe for a year. Or leave Sweden entirely until others forget you.

»My mother worries about me. She calls all the time«.

Many parents don’t react when their children are involved in crime, he explains. Parents don’t want to say anything to the authorities. They are afraid of having their children forcibly removed.

»You are fucked without parents who care. My mother visited me in the detention center. She waited for me outside. I’m at home a lot with my mother now. I have to be«, he says.

At the end of April, the court in Helsingborg delivered a verdict in the murder case against Zakaria and the six other young people.

Zakaria, along with four of the others charged, was not convicted in the murder itself but was convicted of helping the two murderers, aged 19 and 20, in various ways.

The court believed there was no evidence that Zakaria had any knowledge that the two murderers, before getting into the car he transported them in, had shot and killed a person several hours earlier.

The murderers were sentenced to life imprisonment. According to the court records, the motive was revenge for criminal conflicts in the youth environment in Helsingborg. One was deported from Sweden. Zakaria was sentenced to a care program at a closed youth home in Sweden under the so-called LVU law, which deals with care for young people.

The court has set several goals for his treatment. He must achieve good physical and mental health. He must resume his schooling, and he must gain insight into his own criminality and »other norm-breaking behavior«.

He must »reflect on his social interactions« and how they affect his ability to stay away from crime. The development must be continuously assessed by a social committee.

According to the court records, Zakaria does not consent to the treatment, which must still be carried out and can be extended if the authorities deem it necessary.

»I don’t know what they mean by my ’behavior’. What kind of young person do they want me to become here in Sweden? What kind of opportunities are they giving me? All young people have problems. They want me to think, but I’ve thought. Crime is over for me. Completely over«.

Can you keep that promise?

»I can promise it to everyone. It’s over for me. My mother is glad I wasn’t convicted of murder, but she’s sad about my life«.