Arklev, Jackie

The early years

Jackie Arklew’s biological mother was a poor Liberian who became pregnant by a 60-year-old sex tourist from Europe. Jackie's stepfather was an American named Joe, who became ill a year later and left for the USA ^[4] . Then the mother took her two youngest children - Jackie and his sister. At the age of 2, Jackie came to Norway. For a long time he tried to find his stepfather Joe and move to the USA, but he refused to meet his stepson and communicate with him ^[4] .

At the age of three, Arklev was adopted by a Swedish family from Ankarsund , located fifty kilometers northwest of Sturuman (South Lapland) ^[4] . Jackie's new adoptive parents held a village shop and lived a floor above it. As a child, Jackie became interested in the history of World War II and, despite his origin, suddenly began to support the ideology of Nazism. At the age of 17, he was enrolled in the Norwegian Dragoon Regiment of the Armed Forces of Sweden in Arvidsjaur and, having served there, decided to get into the French Foreign Legion and applied there for enrollment ^[5] . However, after talking with the leadership of the Legion, Jackie was very disappointed, especially after the words that the soldiers were not going to go to the front of active hostilities. As a result, Arklev volunteered for Croatia ^[6] .

Service in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Arklev, 19, arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 ^[7] and joined the Bosnian Croat army because he liked not only their combat readiness, but also the fact that Croatia was an ally of Germany in World War II (Bosnia was then part of Croatia). Arklev, who became a mercenary, served on the Croatian Defense Council , in a special unit “Ludwig Pavlovich” according to his convictions ^[5] . During the war, he committed a number of war crimes: in the camps of prisoners of war Gabel and Grabovin, he tortured Bosnian Muslims, including pregnant women (about which he reported in court) ^[8] . In May 1995, Arklev was captured by Bosnian Muslims in Mostar and sentenced in September to 13 years in prison, but after the appeal, the case was partially reviewed, and in February 1996 the sentence was reduced to 8 years in prison ^[8] .

The presence of surviving witnesses did not allow Arklev to escape the conviction, but in 1996 the Red Cross began negotiations on the exchange of prisoners of war and the possible extradition of Arklev to Sweden. The next consideration of the criminal cases initiated in July 1993 ^[8] ended with the release in September 1996 of Arklev, but on a recognizance not to leave the place and proper behavior. In January 1997, Jan Danielsson , Arkleva’s lawyer, secured compensation for his client in the amount of SEK 23 thousand from Sweden ^[7] .

Malexander Murders

On May 28, 1999, in Chis, three armed masked men robbed the Estiet Enschild Bank . The robbers were Jackie Arklev, Tony Ulsson and Andreas Axelsson . During the robbery, the amount of SEK 2.6 million was stolen ^[9] . In addition, two policemen were shot dead by Malekander Arklyov ^[10] when they tried to detain the robbers ^[11] .

On May 31, 1999, Jackie Arklev was arrested in the municipality of Turesso south of Stockholm. He was discovered by a patrol and attempted to detain the offender. During the detention, Arklyov was injured in the lung ^[12] and was sent to the hospital. The incident occurred on the corner of Granangswegen and Mellanbergswegen streets, not far from house 58 on Granangswegen street, where Andreas Axelsson was soon arrested ^[12] . The arrested were detained, and the firing officer was tried on the charge of bodily harm, but the Handensky District Court made an acquittal in this case ^[13] .

On February 2, 2000, the Linkoping District Court sentenced Arklev to life imprisonment for murder, attempted murder and robbery. On June 7 of that year, the Goethe Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. On June 8, 2001, Arklyov admitted that it was he who shot the police, which removed the charges from Ulsson and Axelsson. On June 29, 2001, the Attorney General announced that the preliminary investigation would be re-conducted ^[9] .

In conclusion

Jackie Arklev served his sentence in Kumla Prison under number 00-246 ^[10] until 2008, then was transferred to Hull Prison ^[14] . Arklyov initially protested against the transfer and wanted to wait for the master's exam, but he was refused ^[15] . During his time in prison, Arklev rejected the ideology of Nazism and admitted that support for dark-skinned Nazi ideology was at least a strange phenomenon ^[10] .

On December 18, 2006, the Stockholm District Court sentenced Arklev to 8 years in prison for crimes against prisoners of war and civilians committed in 1993 during Arklev’s service in the Balkans ^[16] . Arklev became the first Swedish citizen convicted of such a crime ^[10] .

In April 2008, the media reported that Arklev registered his name as a trademark with the State Patent Office ^[2] so that no one was engaged in commercial activities and did not profit from the name of the mercenary ^[3] . The media also learned that Arklev took up painting, and his paintings even got to the exhibition ^[17] .

In October 2010, the prison service in a report to the district court of Örebro reported that within two years Jackie Arklev could be released, since he has a low risk of relapse ^[18] . However, in December 2010 the Örebro District Court stated that the verdict would not be revised due to serious aggravating circumstances. The decision of the court of Örebro was not canceled by the Goethe Court of Appeal. Arklyov repeated the request in 2014 to commute his sentence, however, the Örebro court refused Arklyov again. The convict appealed to the Goethe Court of Appeal, claiming that his sentence was too harsh ^[20] , but in December he was again refused a commutation of sentence ^[21] . Since February 2014, Arklev is serving a sentence in a prison in Borås .

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