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The security camera footage created a stir in Sweden and went viral across Europe: on Sept. 8, a drunken man at the Sandsborg metro station south of Stockholm staggered and fell from a platform onto the tracks. Soon after, Nadar Khiari, a 28-year-old Tunisian man, looked around and then hopped down onto the tracks, where he takes the man’s cell phone, a gold necklace and a silver case. Khiari escaped with his stolen loot, leaving the man on the tracks in the empty station.
Minutes later the man was hit by a train.
Luckily, the unidentified victim survived the collision, although he lost a foot. But Khiari was only convicted of theft. His sentence — for robbing an unconscious man and leaving him, in all probability, to die — was 18 months in prison and a fine of $1,800.
Sweden does not have any law that requires its citizens to render assistance to people in need, so there was no way of charging Khiari with leaving his victim’s life in danger. But as the Associated Press reported, the court wasn’t pleased with what he had done. In its decision, the court wrote the the victim had been “in a particularly vulnerable position, lying intoxicated and injured on the subway track without any opportunity to protect himself, in danger of being killed or being seriously injured. Nadar Khiari must have been fully aware of this.”
Khiari later apologized for not at least alerting transit staff of the man prone on the tracks. He will be deported after serving his prison sentence.