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From: TT
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Photo: Jessica Gow / TT
Former Rural Affairs Minister Eskil Erlandsson (C) en route to negotiations at the Stockholm district court last year.
Former Center Minister Eskil Erlandsson was acquitted in district court of three cases of sexual harassment.
Two of the women chose to go to the Svea Court of Appeal, which is now announcing its verdict in the case.
After a high-profile trial against former Rural Affairs Minister Eskil Erlandsson nearly a year ago, the Stockholm District Court delivered its verdict. Erlandsson, who has consistently denied wrongdoing, was cleared of charges of sexually harassing three women politicians.
In one of the cases, which concerned a member of the central party who testified that she had been exposed to Erlandsson’s touch at the center’s meeting in 2017, the district court ruled that the evidence was insufficient.
At lunch
In the other two cases, the district court found it proven that two moderate MPs had been exposed to physical contact at a dinner in 2016 and a lunch in 2018, respectively, but neither of these touches had the clear sexual character required for criminal responsibility. , according to the court.
The prosecutor decided not to appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeal. However, two of the women did. No ordinary hearing has been held at the Svea Court of Appeal, but the case is decided on the basis of the written documents. The verdict will be announced at 11 am.
“I massaged the joints”
Eskil Erlandsson said in district court that he did not recall any of the events, although he also did not deny that he may have been sitting next to the women. But in such cases he has not consciously touched them but reached out to them when he massaged the joints of his hands against his own thighs.
Erlandsson was diagnosed 20 years ago with Dupuytren’s contracture, or Viking disease as it is also called, which causes the fingers to bend. The fact that he also has to sit with his legs spread for another physical condition may also have contributed, according to the defense.
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