Liberal bastion no more? Rights groups fret over Swedish crackdown on gang crime

Rocked by a wave of gang violence, Sweden is rushing to rewrite laws long seen as the hallmark of its open society, but critics fear it is going too far, too fast and threatening the rule of law. Long one of Europe's most liberal states, with one of the continent's most generous social welfare systems developed over generations of political dominance by the centre-left Social Democrats, Sweden has faced an historic political realignment in the face of rising gang crime. In less than two decades the country has gone from having one of the lowest rates of gun violence in Europe to its highest rate by far.