Alleged gang rape shown on Facebook shocks Sweden

USA Today reports:

Outrage and shock are spreading across Sweden over a case against three men of foreign origin arrested on suspicion of raping a woman and broadcasting it live on Facebook.

Swedish authorities said Wednesday that the case against the unidentified men was "growing stronger" amid an increasing backlash against immigrants in a country that took in more asylum seekers per capita than any other nation in Europe last year.

"There have been cases in Sweden before where crimes have been filmed and publicized on social media but not like this," said Pontus Melander, chief prosecutor in the case in Uppsala, the city where the alleged incident took place in an apartment Jan. 22.

"I have seen different cases around the world — but not sexual cases," he added.

The alleged crime in the Scandinavian country, which has one Europe's highest recorded rates of sexual assaults, was live-streamed on a private Facebook page accessible to about 60,000 people.

It follows a year in which 163,000 people sought asylum in Sweden from conflict zones in North Africa and the Middle East — the most the country of 10 million has ever allowed in and double the number it accepted during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Neither the victim nor the alleged perpetrators have been named by authorities. Melander said two of the three men arrested were born in Afghanistan and a third was a Swedish citizen, although his birthplace is not publicly known.

Rapefugees in the news.