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The 29-year-old attorney informed the court Monday that he can no longer defend his client in the case, a 21-year-old gang member accused of drugs. The message is a response to the fact that the Public Ministry demanded last week that the lawyer be declared inappropriate, this because he was the subject of a police investigation for violation of the prohibition of opening.
According to prosecutors Lars Ågren and Paulina Brandberg, the lawyer must have passed on classified information to the 21-year-old’s friends and warned them about police surveillance methods. “Therefore, NN has seriously violated his obligations as a public defender by acting in violation of good legal practices,” the prosecutors write, based on the high-profile report that two other prosecutors recently submitted to the Chancellor of Justice and the College of Justice. Swedish lawyers.
The lawyer now counterattacks and rules that the accusations are “unfounded and have not yet been tried in substance.” According to him, prosecutors have also been guilty of “negligent litigation.” That he still feels compelled to leave his position justifies it by the fact that prosecutors’ accusations have caused concern in the 21-year-old.
“I believe that the client’s concern is so strong that it seriously complicates our future cooperation and therefore has a detrimental effect on his defense,” the lawyer wrote in his request to the Svea Court of Appeal.
Prosecutor Paulina Brandberg appreciates the lawyer’s statement.
– He was expected to realize that it was untenable to continue to be named in this case, says Paulina Brandberg, who in turn demanded that the lawyer bear the additional costs that the state now incurs since another lawyer must read all investigative material.
The intricate situation it is based on the fact that there is no general professional prohibition on defense lawyers who are suspected of crimes. As long as the investigation is ongoing and the attorney retains his title, the trial must take place in each individual case. Another prosecutor has previously requested that the lawyer be removed for the same reasons mentioned above, which also led to the lawyer resigning from office. The man’s boss, who is also accused of having leaked secret information, was in turn recently deprived of two assignments as an asylum representative after the Swedish Immigration Board found that his trust had been damaged.
It is not yet clear when the ongoing criminal investigation against the 29-year-old lawyer is expected to be completed. As DN previously reported, the prosecution has criticized that the police did not handle the case with priority.
– I can only say that I have the necessary resources, but that a number of measures have yet to be completed, says Ewa Marie Häggkvist, who recently took over responsibility for the investigation.
Parallel to the criminal investigation The Swedish Bar Association has started a disciplinary case against the 29-year-old lawyer and his 41-year-old boss. As in the previous case, the lawyers here are accused of having leaked classified information to people around the criminal gangs on several occasions. The society’s disciplinary committee asked lawyers for opinions in January, but the trial was postponed for the future.
“The committee is awaiting additions to the case,” Mia Edwall Insulander, general secretary of the Bar Association, writes to DN.
DN has sought the lawyer to no avail.
