This summer, the shocking killing of a 32-year-old Swedish man, Christian Zedig, in Copenhagen at a public screening of a football match drew massive headlines, both in Denmark and around the world.
On Wednesday, one of the three men charged in the incident, 31-year-old Nkumba Ludovic Tshiembe, was handed a one-year prison sentence.
Tshiembe struck the Swedish man in the neck, which caused injuries that eventually killed him. Tshiembe pleaded guilty to charges of violent assault.
Much-discussed episode
The episode that led to the Swedish man’s killing took place on 30 June this summer at a FIFA World Cup match screening at Islands Brygge in Copenhagen.
Tshiembe had thrown beer cans at spectators before striking the 32-year-old Swedish man, who was rushed to the hospital, where he later died due to a burst artery from the strike.
Altogether, three people have been criminally charged in connection with the episode. This includes Tshiembe, who is a Danish citizen but was born in Africa. Tshiembe was charged with striking the victim in the neck.
Also charged was a 24-year-old Danish man for having stomped on the now-deceased Swedish victim and for striking another victim.
And so was a 29-year-old Somali man, who was charged with kicking another man and with breaching an entry ban into the country.
According to the prosecutor in the case against Tshiembe, the attack by the culprits was “relatively unprovoked”.
Tshiembe has a history
This is not the first time Tshiembe has been on the wrong side of the law. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for attempted murder in 2017.
He initially came to Denmark at a very young age and has since received Danish citizenship. Before the incident this summer, he was studying to become a social worker.
Tshiembe has two small children. He is still together with the children’s mother, but he does not live with them.
Could have received up to three years
Tshiembe was charged with simple assault under Danish criminal law (§244). This could have earned him a sentence of up to three years in prison.
The perpetrator pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison by the City Court of Copenhagen.
The prosecutor emphasised a previous case in which a man was also handed a prison sentence for a single strike that led to a man’s death at the music festival Copenhell.
Prosecutor Søren Harbo was pleased with the sentencing, saying to TV2, “He was to be sentenced, and I asked for one year in prison, because he had acted aggressively and in a way that escalated the conflict.
“Because he has previously been punished for serious crime, and because his punch resulted in one person dying.”
Government wants to change the law
Politicians across the political spectrum in Denmark, however, were much less pleased with the sentence.
Already in August, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet) suggested she would like to see the punishment for violent crime increased due to this specific case.
On Wednesday after the sentencing, Minister of Justice Nicolai Wammen (also of the Social Democrats) suggested the government would put forward legislation to make the punishment more substantial for cases like this one.
Other politicians speak out too
The Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti) leader Morten Messerschmidt wrote of the sentencing on X: “I simply have no words for how unfair this sentence is.”
The Conservative People’s Party’s (Det Konservative Folkeparti) spokesperson on justice, Frederik Bloch Munster, said to TV2, “I think the vast majority of Danes can see that when a man kills another man, he should not be given only one year in prison.”
The Green Left’s (Socialistisk Folkeparti) spokesperson on justice, Karina Lorentzen Dehnhardt, said to TV2, “I understand if, as a relative, you sit and think that it is unreasonably little for taking another man’s life. There are two children who are missing their father, and a woman who is missing her husband.”
Global attention
The story has also received significant coverage outside Denmark.
The media in Sweden have covered the case closely due to the victim’s nationality. Several outlets have suggested a similar case would have led to tougher sentences in Sweden.
The story, which received significant attention in national-conservative parts of social media over the summer, is again big on platforms such as X.
Here, businessman Elon Musk chimed in and wrote in a comment, “Just 1 year for murder! Outrageous.”