Keillers Park murder
| Keillers Park murder | |
|---|---|
View over Gothenburg from the heights of Keillers Park | |
Keillers Park Keillers Park (Västra Götaland) Keillers Park Keillers Park (Southern Sweden) Keillers Park Keillers Park (Sweden) | |
| Location | 57°42′52″N 11°56′11″E / 57.71444°N 11.93645°E Keillers Park, Ramberget, Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Date | 23 July 1997 (CET) |
| Target | Homosexual man |
Attack type | Shooting |
| Weapons | Pistol |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Victims | Josef Ben Meddour |
| Perpetrator | Nemesis Khoshnood-Sharis Jon Nödtveidt |
| Motive | Satanism and homophobia |
| Verdict | Guilty |
| Convictions | Murder (Khoshnood-Sharis) Complicity to murder (Nödtveidt) |
The Keillers Park murder was the murder of Josef ben Meddour (aged 36), a gay Algerian national who had been living in Sweden for many years. On 23 July 1997, the body of an unknown man was discovered in a park in the city of Gothenburg, in western Sweden. The man, who had been shot twice with a pistol, was identified two days later as Meddour.
After months of investigation, the police apprehended the two murderers. They were Jon Nödtveidt (aged 22), the frontman of extreme metal band Dissection, and his friend Nemisis Vlad Khosnood (then aged 20), a satanist who also used the alias "Frater Nemidial". The two men confessed to their crime and were sentenced by a court of appeal to ten years of incarceration. Vlad was also a suspect in other murder and assault cases and a domestic abuse case at that time.
Nödtveidt and Vlad, who had formed the Satanic cult Misantropiska Lucifer Ordern (MLO), had previously discussed performing human sacrifices before they murdered Meddour. Whether the motive was occult-related could not be clearly established, however. The murder was described as a homophobic hate crime by the Swedish media.