In a Swedish court, four teenage brothers and a 15-year-old girl have been sentenced for the murder of a man she had accused of rape. The victim, a taxi driver, was discovered hanged in a nature reserve in central Sweden in March.

The court in Uppsala determined that, due to the earlier allegations involving the girl, he had been enticed there under the false promise of sexual favors. Subsequently, he was overpowered, and his body remained undiscovered for a week.

The eldest brother, who was 18 at the time, received a life sentence, while the other four, who were minors during the events, were sentenced to three to four years in a young offenders' institution.

The three older brothers were found guilty of murder, while the girl and her boyfriend, both 15 at the time of the murder, were not present at the scene but were convicted of aiding and abetting the murder.

The court concluded that the killers had attempted to disguise the death as a suicide, as the taxi driver's body was found hanging from a tree.

Although the five teenagers denied involvement, the court convicted them on circumstantial evidence put forward by prosecutors.

Evidence including messages between the teenagers was presented by the prosecution as proof of a murder plot.

On 20 March, four days before the victim disappeared, the girl wrote to a friend: "His brothers are going to meet my rapist."

One of the brothers wrote: "We should do Friday [the day of the murder]," to which another brother replied: "OK."

After the killing, one of the brothers used the victim's mobile phone to transfer money from his bank account.

The girl denied knowing that the brothers intended to kill the man, saying she had only thought they would beat him up.

But Lars Holmgard, president of the Uppsala District Court, ruled that the brothers had planned to murder the man at least from the time that they purchased the rope found where he died.

"The plan must have been for [the victim] to be hanged from the rope, in our opinion."

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