Three men in their 20s have been given long jail terms for their part in the fatal shooting of award-winning hip-hop artist C Gambino in Gothenburg last year.

C Gambino, whose real name was Karar Ramadan, had been named hip-hop artist of 2023 in Sweden’s Grammis music awards a month before he was murdered, in what prosecutors described as a ruthless and premeditated shooting.

All three men were convicted of aiding and abetting murder, and two of them were cleared of murder, as the Gothenburg court ruled it could not be established beyond reasonable doubt who had fired the fatal shots.

The gun that killed C Gambino has never been found and a car used in the shooting was later found burned out.

C Gambino’s murder has been linked to a local gangland conflict, although the motive remains a mystery. Prosecutors said there was no evidence to suggest that he was part of any criminal network.

For several years Sweden’s biggest cities have been beset by gang violence that have claimed dozens of lives, often involving children recruited to carry out violent attacks.

The rapper, who was 26, was shot at a multistorey car park in Gothenburg in June 2024 in what the court said was a carefully planned attack and had the character of a “pure execution”.

Investigators were unable to find DNA traces of the attackers but did map their movements from mobile phones around the time of the shooting.

The prosecutor also told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that police had been able to use hours of CCTV footage from the car park and elsewhere.

Videos showed the killers’ vehicle entering the car park more than a week before the shooting, and then waiting for hours before the attack took place as C Gambino returned home from the gym late in the evening.

Although he was able to raise the alarm, emergency services who arrived at the scene were unable to use their communication system and had to shout to each other, SVT reported.

The artist died in hospital about an hour afterwards.

In its verdict, the court gave a 22-year-old man a life sentence in jail, while two others aged 21 and 20 were handed terms of 15 and a half years and 12 and a half years respectively,

A fourth man, aged 19, was convicted of setting fire to their car.

Another gang-related case concluded on Wednesday with a 14-year-old boy found guilty of shooting dead a man in his home on the order of one of Sweden’s most notorious gangs, Foxtrot.

Two other boys were convicted: one for conspiracy and another for preparing the murder in Skurup in southern Sweden. None of the three will face punishment because they are below the age of criminal responsibility, which is 15 in Sweden.

The victim of the Skurup murder was targeted because his son had refused to carry out an attack for the Foxtrot gang.

Police in Iraqi Kurdistan have meanwhile arrested a key figure in the Foxtrot gang, according to Swedish radio.

The suspect is described as close to gang leader Rawa Majid and has been linked to a number of killings in Sweden, including the Skurup shooting.

The body of Nigeria’s former President Muhammadu Buhari, who died aged 82 in a London clinic on Sunday, is due to be flown home later to be buried in his hometown in Katsina state.

Katsina state governor Dikko Radda, who returned to Nigeria on Monday morning after being with Buhari’s family in London, said Buhari would be buried in Daura town, 50 miles (80km) from Katsina city on Tuesday.

Nigeria’s Vice-President Kashim Shettima is in London and will accompany Buhari’s remains back to Nigeria.

“Based on my discussions with the family and close people that are with the corpse, preparations are ongoing in order to bring the body back to Nigeria,” said Radda.

”What I have gathered so far is that the corpse will arrive 12pm tomorrow [Tuesday] and the burial will happen by 2pm,” he added.

He said the burial, initially expected on Monday, had been delayed to allow more people to attend.

Buhari’s home in Daura is already filled with mourners as friends, family and well-wishers await the arrival of his corpse.

The vice-president also confirmed Daura to be Buhari’s final resting place in a post on social media after arriving in London on Monday morning.

He said that Buhari had died after a brief illness without revealing any further details, however the former president had suffered from ill-health for many years.

Even though he’s a former president, there will not be a state funeral. In line with Islamic teachings, Buhari will be buried as quickly as possible in a simple ceremony, Islamic cleric Abdullahi Garangamawa told the BBC.

Tributes have continued to pour in for the late army general who led Nigeria twice – first as military leader and an elected president after becoming the first opposition leader to defeat an incumbent, in 2015.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, defeated by Buhari in 2015, described the late leader as someone who “was selfless in his commitment to his duty and served the country with character and a deep sense of patriotism”.

Former military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, who overthrew Buhari in a 1985 coup, also showered praises on the octogenarian.

“He is a man who, even in retirement, remained a moral compass to many, and an example of modesty in public life,” Babangida noted.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is expected to attend the funeral prayer in Daura, has declared a seven-day national mourning period in honour of his predecessor.

In an official condolence statement released on Sunday evening, Tinubu said the nation would pay its final respects to the former leader with dignity and honour, starting with the lowering of all national flags to half-mast across the country from Sunday.