A Swedish police officer is being investigated after allegedly telling a man ejected from an asylum seekers’ centre to “go home you Arab b******”.
Officers were called to the Hotell Amigo, which houses asylum seekers in Emmaboda, south-eastern Sweden, following reports of a fight at the establishment on Tuesday.
The man, named Nobakht Ahad by local media, claims the officers called to the scene verbally and physically abused him, removing him from the hotel and transporting him to a forest several kilometres away.
In an alleged recording of the incident one of the police officers can be heard shouting: “To hell with you, you f***ing lunatic. Go home, you f***ing Arab b******. Go home to your f***ing country.”
Barometern, a Swedish language local newspaper, interviewed Mr Ahad in the forest following the altercation.
He told the paper: “They were heavy handed, kicked me in the side. One took a hard object and hit me in the head. Blood gushed.
“They called me things. I thought, this can’t be Swedish police, they cannot treat me that way.”
Barometern’s report states Mr Ahad was “terrified”, had a “gash on his head” and “complained of pain in his ribs”, when he was found by reporters in a forest near a motorway exit to Emmaboda on Tuesday evening.
In a video of the interview, Mr Ahad appears to have blood dripping from the top of his head.
Mr Ahad says he is not a resident at the hotel and had been invited to the centre for coffee. He has captured a recording of the entire confrontation.
On Wednesday, police said they has opened a criminal investigation against the officer who made the racial statement, according to Swedish national broadcaster Sveriges Radio.
The officer, who remains unnamed, is reportedly suspected of unlawful threats, insults and assault.
