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Early in the morning at the Gothenburg District Court. The rituals are the usual ones. Security control of all participants.
– I have nothing to say to you. What exists, exists. It’s settled and ready, says a man in an off-white suit to the DN reporter.
You have just passed the barricades and, finally, you will go down to the waiting room outside of room 3. A major drug case will be dealt with here. The prosecution team is already in place, as are the witnesses and the audience. And much more from the guild dressed in white: defense attorneys.
When the man in the white suit sees DN’s camera, he turns on his heel and sits on a couch some distance away to wait for the target to be called.
The reason for does not want to be interviewed or posed for a photo are three reports to the disciplinary committee of the Bar Association. They refer to incidents in which the man has represented alleged criminals and in all cases prosecutors in the cases believe that he has helped the suspects to circumvent the restrictions that were placed on them when they were arrested. The Swedish Bar Association announced on Thursday that it will punish the Gothenburg lawyer for two of the three cases with a warning and a fine of SEK 50,000. It is the second toughest disciplinary measure in society, where the toughest is exclusion.
DN has read the documents behind the reports and that the man is now convicted of violating good legal practice.
Around 09.40, on November 2, 2018. The investigation understands that it is progressing fast. A man in his 20s, we call him A, got into his car in the morning and is leaving the residential area of Hisingen where he has his apartment. You only have a few blocks before an Audi makes a tight turn in front of you and blocks the road. From a black bag, the driver pulls out what appears to be a firearm.
The car used by the convict.
Photo: Police
After an escape on foot, the police are called and Audin’s driver, B, can be arrested. He is also in his 20s and was initially suspected of attempted murder, although the Court of Appeal’s verdict must be limited to a serious unlawful threat. The court concludes that it is not proven that B attempted to murder A.
But was it even B who sat on Audin? He himself claims that it was not, and finally presents an alibi. At the time the crime was committed, B was sleeping at a friend’s house, he claims. And the friend will confirm later.
When B presents his alibi, he is detained with restraints, which means that he is not allowed to have contact with anyone outside the detention center. With the exception of his lawyer, who wears an off-white suit when DN confronts him in district court.
And this is where it starts to get interesting. Because when B tells the lawyer about the overnight stay, he does not go to the prosecutor for the police to investigate a circumstance that is completely decisive for the client. Instead, the lawyer contacts B.
Daniel Larsson is the prosecutor and he was the one who directed the investigation. He is also one of those who later denounced the lawyer before the disciplinary commission of the Bar Association.
– In this case, I have said that it is a false alibi test that you can suspect that the lawyer has helped to obtain his client. Courts have concluded that the suspect was at the crime scene and then it can be claimed that he was a false alibi, says prosecutor Daniel Larsson.
It is a coincidence that the attorney’s actions are revealed at all. Information on how it happened when B’s friend was suddenly able to offer him an alibi can be found on a mobile phone of another witness.
The Court of Appeal writes in its ruling that the alibi presented by the young offender is attributed a very low probative value because his lawyer spoke with the alibi witness before the police could do so.
Photo: Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal ruling against B states that the Gothenburg lawyer’s actions have hardly helped the client. On the contrary, by helping B violate detention restrictions, she has significantly weakened her alibi.
– But you should know that it is not prohibited for a lawyer to contact a witness. You can do this if you are very careful in that contact. The serious thing here, and which in my opinion violates good legal practice, is that this attorney helped his client break custody restrictions, says Daniel Larson.
The bar association followed the same line and convicted the defense attorney for it.
Both the man who was exposed to the crime in Hisingen, A, and the convicted man, B, have been linked by the Gothenburg police to two different criminal groups, each with a large capital of violence.
Sharp ammunition that could be used in a K-pistol or pistol was found in the Audi used in the incident that was first investigated as an attempted murder but ended with a young man convicted of unlawful threats.
Photo: Police
A previous goal where the attorney’s actions have also led to a report to the disciplinary council, three brothers are charged with a felony drug offense. The brothers come from a family that the lawyer has often represented in court, a family in which several members appear in the criminal record and who on many occasions have collaborated so clearly that the authorities speak of a criminal family network.
During the period of detention, the three brothers are subject to severe restrictions and when investigators ask about the wiretaps that support the suspicions against them, they refuse to comment on what can be “green and” brown “,” caramel “,” load “and” burre. “meant to refer.
But in the district court, all of a sudden, they have answers to give.
– When the test started, what can be called a code key was presented. Some expressions that the accusation in question did not refer to drugs at all, they said at the time, but to Viagra, says courtroom prosecutor Ulrika Bentelius Egelrud at the national unit against international and organized crime in Gothenburg.
– During the allegations, I thought it came out that two of the defenders cooperated and I mean that they had done so in violation of the restrictions, he says.
Ulrika Bentelius Egelrud decided to report the incident, but the community did not follow her line. In this case, the lawyer is released.
Gothenburg District Court.
Photo: Magnus Hallgren
In addition to the above In the cases, the Court of Appeal has ruled that the attorney also assisted a man who was detained on suspicion of a financial crime in the class of million to write a letter to a bankruptcy administrator on behalf of his wife. At the request of the prosecutor and after the Chancellor of Justice appealed the original district court decision, the Gothenburg lawyer was removed from the case and the client was given another defender in his place. In this case, the Swedish Bar Association considers that the Gothenburg lawyer has violated good practice. This is the basis of the warning and the fine.
Prosecutor Daniel Larson tells DN that this type of behavior is very unusual, but also that it is part of the nature of things that prosecutors do not find out about everything that goes on between lawyers and their clients.
– When a suspect is detained with restraints, it is so that he cannot influence the investigation, for example, by obtaining an alibi. But of course the suspect has the right to speak to his attorney and that means that the attorneys get a very high level of trust from the legal community. If you help a suspect bypass restrictions, you abuse that trust, he says.
– It can have an impact on the legal process, which in the worst case means that the guilty are acquitted by the court.
The lawyer declined to answer questions about the three reports to the disciplinary committee when DN confronted him in the Gothenburg District Court.
Photo: Tomas Ohlsson
Before the hearing begins in room 3, DN tries one last time to ask the lawyer how he sees that the Swedish Bar Association convicted him.
It’s about three times, not a single mistake. Is it a pattern?
– I have nothing to say to you, answer again and disappear into the courtroom.
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