Police knock down documentary behind Trump’s #LastNightInSweden gaffe

After Donald Trump revealed his ‘Last night in Sweden’ comments were prompted by a report he saw on Fox News, two policemen interviewed for the segment have come forward saying their words were taken out of context, describing the filmmaker as a ‘madman.’

The segment in question was broadcast Friday night on Fox News by filmmaker Ami Horowitz, which claimed that crime in Sweden has risen dramatically due to an influx of refugees and asylum seekers.

Trump first mentioned an incident that took place in Sweden on Friday at a rally in Florida on Saturday, prompting much confusion, ridicule and the ‘#LastNightInSweden’ hashtag which trended online after it was established that nothing had happened.

READ MORE:#LastNightInSweden: Trump panned over fake attack gaffe, Swedes want answers

The president later claimed he had been referring to a story broadcast on Fox News about “immigrants & Sweden.”

READ MORE:‘I saw it on Fox News’: Trump trolled mercilessly for #LastNightInSweden explanation

But the two Swedish police officers interviewed by Horowitz have accused the filmmaker of being misleading saying that the documentary was manipulatively edited.

Anders Göranzon and Jacob Ekström say they had no idea the documentary was about immigration. Instead, they were led to believe they were being interviewed about crime and areas with high crime rates.

"I don't understand why we are part of the segment. The interview was about something completely different to what Fox News and Horowitz were talking about," Göranzon told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Monday.

"It was supposed to be about crime in high risk areas. Areas with high crime rates. There wasn't any focus on migration or immigration."

Göranzon accused Horowitz of distorting and exaggerating the problems faced by Sweden in his documentary.

"We don't stand behind it,” he said. “It shocked us. He has edited the answers. We were answering completely different questions in the interview. This is bad journalism."

“The excerpt they showed doesn't say anything, we answered a different question. We don't stand behind what he says. He is a madman.” he added.

Despite a number of high-profile cases, such as the livestreaming of an apparent gang rape on Facebook in January, as well as alarming reports of gang violence and so-called “no-go zones,” Sweden is a relatively safe country.

A commonly-cited claim is that Sweden has the highest rate of rape in Europe, which has long been discredited. For example, in 2005, the government increased the definition of rape, which now includes digital penetration and molestation.

In addition, Swedish police must record every individual instance of rape separately, according to the BBC.

Swedish victims’ willingness to report attacks as well as authorities’ limited capabilities to pursue rape cases also contribute to this. Reported sex offences actually dropped between 2014 and 2015.