For eight years Stefan Holm said nothing. Then he saw Emil Persson at the Bokmässan book fair in Gothenburg, and, by his own admission, lost control.
Nearly seven weeks on, the Swedish Prosecution Authority on Friday filed assault charges against the former high jumper at Gothenburg District Court. According to the indictment, as reported by Gothenburg daily GP, Holm grabbed Persson by the throat, shoved him, and pressed him against a wall.
Witnesses at the fair described a chokehold lasting roughly 20 seconds. Persson was seen afterward with a torn t-shirt and red marks around his neck.
An eight-year grudge
The incident has its roots in a 2018 episode of Kanal 5’s “Breaking News” in which Persson read out a series of jokingly hypothetical statements for former high jumper Patrik Sjöberg to react to. One of them, according to public broadcaster SVT’s background reporting, involved Holm’s then 14-year-old son Melwin Lycke Holm, now an established high jumper in his own right.
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Persson later apologized to Holm privately. Holm rejected the apology at the time, and in September confronted the podcaster in person.
“There is no excuse”
In a long Facebook post the day after the attack, Holm admitted responsibility and apologized to Persson, the book fair, witnesses and his family. Commercial broadcaster TV4 reproduced the post at length.
“I am well aware that I have made a fool of myself, and that I have done so thoroughly, and for this there is no excuse,” he wrote.
Holm added that he would seek professional help, writing that his difficulty managing anger had grown in the years since he stopped training competitively, his sport had once given him an outlet he no longer has, as English-language outlet Sweden Herald summarized.
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The defense: disputed details
Holm’s lawyer David Bardavid told local daily NWT that the defense and the prosecution are at odds over parts of the sequence of events. Holm himself has rejected the characterization of a chokehold, telling TV4 in the autumn that he did not perceive his actions that way.
Persson, who filed the police report, called the indictment “a very much-awaited decision,” according to Swedish outlet News55.
The case will be heard at Gothenburg District Court. No trial date has been announced.
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