Liberal bastion no more? Rights groups fret over Swedish crackdown on gang crime

FILE PHOTO: Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer visits the center of Skarholmen, after a man was shot and died in south of Stockholm, Sweden April 11, 2024. TT News Agency/Claudio Bresciani/via REUTERS/File Photo

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Rocked by a wave of gang violence, Sweden is rushing to rewrite laws long seen as the hallmark of its open society, but critics fear it is going too far, too fast and threatening the rule of law.

Long one of Europe's most liberal states, with one of the continent's most generous social welfare systems developed over generations of political dominance by the centre-left Social Democrats, Sweden has faced an historic political realignment in the face of rising gang crime.