Tag: court

disbarred

Over the last weeks, no fewer than four lawyers have been expelled from the Swedish Bar Association. The latest ousting was for passing on information from two jailed clients to persons involved in their respective cases. According to DN, Edip Samuelsson contacted, and passed on information to, his client’s alibi in a murder case. In another instance, he is reported to have provided financial information from a client to the client’s wife at the same time as this client was suspected of a serious financial crime. In both these cases, Samuelsson was found by the Swedish supreme court to have acted in violation of the restrictions imposed upon him by these cases.

Originally, the Swedish Bar Association had decided to not expel Samuelsson for his actions. Instead, he was given a 50,000 SEK fine, the highest fine allowable. However, the office of Chancellor of Justice didn’t think the Swedish Bar Association came down hard enough, and took the case to the supreme court. The supreme court turned out to agree with the Chancellor, and voted to disbar the lawyer.

“I think it is important to get clarity on how to look at this kind of violation of restrictions because it has a big impact on how the legal profession is seen” Chancellor Mari Heidenborg said after the decision. “It is incredibly important, she continued, “not least for the detained: The risk with violating restrictions is that it can actually be worse for the detainee themselves.” For more on the Chancellor of Justice, see below.

more cases

In other cases this year, the Bar Association did do enough. Last month, it expelled two lawyers for leaking information on police investigations to various people connected to gang activity. Their real names, as well as their codenames “The Prince” and “the King”, were found in the now-famous Encrochat files. They were relieved of the lawyerly duties and privileges.

Also earlier this year, another lawyer was permanently vacationed when she, too, was found to have abrogated detainee restrictions. In this case, the lawyer played mail deliverer, delivering letters from her client, who was detained in a big narcotics case, to her client’s wife.

The Swedish Bar Association has not always been a vocal supporter of tougher punishments for convicted criminals. The association called doing away with the “punishment rebate” (a praxis in which the number of crimes committed automatically decreases the punishment for each crime) a “badly thought-out and criminal-political opportunistic idea trend.” But where the Bar Association might fall short, it seems the Chancellor of Justice is ready to pick up the slack.

symbol of the office of Chancellor of Justice
check out the cranes
Basically, if you want to claim damages against the state, you contact this office. Or, if the police do something wrong, this office makes the judgement call. They also are charged with protecting freedom om expression and will act as prosecutor if this right is restricted in any instance. Plus, it can also, apparently, get involved with disciplinary errands involving lawyers due to its capacity to act in the interests of the general public. (Who has heard of this agency before?)

The office's symbol, besides the usual three crowns, includes two cranes. The one crane holds the traditional scales of justice. The other crane is holding a stone - if the crane falls asleep, it will drop the stone on its own foot and wake up. The cranes are meant to refer to the Chancellor of Justice's task of making sure that courts and other authorities fulfill their obligations according to what justice and the law require. 

Cranes. I like it.

Ebba Busch’s mea culpa

“Yes, I said the truth out loud” Ebba Busch did not say.
image: Alexander Mahmoud (DN)

Ebba Busch, the leader of the Christian Democratic party, admitted today to committing gross defamation (grovt förtal). Busch referred to a person representing a man against whom she is embroiled in a court case as a convicted felon. The person actually is a convicted felon. In Sweden, this is still considered gross defamation.

Busch admits to committing a punishable offence, but that in her “heart and soul” she does not believe she is guilty: There are, according to Busch, judicial ambiguities (juridiska oklarheter), but she explains that she is putting these issues aside in order to “lead a country with considerably bigger problems than my personal honor.” She is, Busch continues, admitting to a crime in order to put an end to it, and says that she doesn’t “have the time to go through with examining a legal precedence that today is not clear.”

By admitting guilt, Busch skips the public grilling that a court case would give rise to. But her declaration that her case highlights legal equivocality is simply wrong, says DNs legal reporter Martin Schultz. “It has been well documented over the last few years that even the truth can be defamation” Shultz says. “By bringing up earlier crimes, she has called a person a criminal – which is technically a defamation.”

In American law, a statement must be false to be defamatory. Such is not the case in Sweden.

In American law, a statement must be false to be defamatory. Such is not the case in Sweden. Busch wants the complaint done and gone, but at the same time doesn’t want to really say she was in the wrong.  It remains to be seen just how well Busch’s admission (and the real estate court case that gave rise to it) goes over with Swedish voters.

Lesser prison sentences due to Covid

hard times in prison
pic: YLE/Ulrika Stagnäs-Lund

Covid changes a lot of things. Even prison sentences. DN reports that the sentences being handed out after conviction are being shortened because of the isolation measures instituted at the prisons to keep Covid out.

Yesterday, a man convicted of selling large amounts of narcotics was given a 5-year sentence instead of the original 6-year sentence because of the pandemic. “I pressed for a lesser sentence… he isn’t allowed to have visitors. It’s very trying,” said defense lawyer Frida Wallin.

In another particularly serious narcotics case (synnerligen grovt narkotikamål) the number of days the suspect was held before being charged was counted in reducing the sentence the suspect eventually received. While he was being held, he wasn’t allowed visitors due to the risk of spreading Covid. In this case, the judge of appeal (hovrättsråd) explained, the later-convicted felon was under particular physical and mental strain during that time, which should be taken into account in sentencing, even if the restrictions themselves were proper.

“Since a court has in these cases made the call that [Covid] can affect sentencing, we can be pretty sure that there will be more sentencing of this kind,” reported lawyer Carl Mellberg. “We have to hope it’s a temporary situation and doesn’t go on for a long time.”

“It’s extremely tough not to be able to have visitors” said lawyer Frida Wallin. Ask any innocent inmate in Sweden’s old age homes.

25 Oct. – court says no incitement to racial hatred

NMR march and protest Göteborg 2017
pic: Roger Turesson (DN.se)

Ten members of the neo-nazi Nordic resistance movement group (Nordic motståndsrörelsen, NMR) were today pronounced not guilty of incitement to racial hatred (hets mot folkgrupp) in court in Göteborg. Five of the charged were convicted of violent rioting.

The indictments stemmed from the protests surrounding the book expo in Göteborg in 2017, during which there were protests both at the presence of an extreme right-wing publication that was being allowed to display at the expo, and at a march by the NMR directly by the book expo. Many NMR activists protested the protest, leading to clashes.

The court case did not just try to convict NMR members for being violent, but also for inciting racial hatred. In particular, the prosecutors argued that their bearing of the symbol of an arrow called the tyrrunan – or “the symbol of Tyr” who was a minor god in Nordic mythology – that is a sign of NMR membership, along with their otherwise distinctive style of clothing, their speech, and their slogans, together comprise the concept incitement to racial hatred. In lead prosecutor Jonas Martinsson’s argument, these circumstances together were enough and at least equal to the usual requirement for incitement which is generally a specific racist comment or publication (SvD.se/hets).

The court disagreed, stating that the demonstrators’ collected expressions were not of a kind that clearly expressed a connection to national socialist movements during the 1930s and 1940s. To publicly express membership in, or sympathy with, NMR, can not be considered incitement to racial hatred, the court stated in a press release (DN.se/hets).

Commentators have suggested that it isn’t too surprising that at this lower level a court will find similarly to earlier cases. For example, in a court case from 2018, the prosecution tried to link the tyrrunan arrow symbol to the Nazi movement, but didn’t succeed. As opposed to the swastika, the court said then, the arrow symbol was not “generally known as being connected” to the national socialist movement. Nor had the prosecution made that particular argument, the court stated. Therefore the posters bearing the arrow symbol could not be considered incitement to racial hatred (SvD.se/symbol). It is possible that this was one case that the court had in mind.

Prosecutor Martinsson said that it’s very likely they will appeal. Hopes are not only to get a different result but also to expand the definition of incitement to include how many people experience it.

15 July – high court rules on “negligent rape”

pic: razzle.co.uk

The Swedish Court of Appeals (hovrätt) sentenced a man to jail for eight months after he was found guilty of negligent rape (“oaktsamt våldtäkt”), DN.se reports. The court ruled that the man was aware that the woman was likely a victim of human trafficking and was therefore not a willing partner: After an encounter with the woman, the man reportedly wrote on his facebook page “Trafficking suspected. Not recommended.”

While the man pled guilty to buying sex and to degrading photography (“kränkande fotografering”) he appealed the rape charge. The Swedish court upheld the previous court’s judgement but reduced the sentence from one year to eight months. The reduced sentence was likely due to following the punishment precedent set by the Swedish Supreme Court in another negligent rape case only several months ago.

On the 1st of July, 2108, the law changed to make sex illegal unless it is mutually, expressly and/or obviously consensual. TT reports that to be convicted of rape alone, the perpetrator must have acted intentionally. If the perpetrator was “merely” grossly negligent in ascertaining the victim’s willingness they can be found guilty of “negligent rape”.