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Police hid details of man’s fatal injuries

Prosecutors have decided to reopen their investigation into what caused a 24-year-old man’s death following a violent arrest in Gothenburg last April amid revelations that police investigators tried to cover up details about the man's injuries.

Published: 8 October 2009 07:57 CEST

On Wednesday, vice prosecutor Bo Lindgren announced he planned to reopen the probe into the death of 24-year-old Johan Liljeqvist. Rather than pursue the investigation himself, however, he has elected to hand it off to colleague.

“If new information comes up, it’s not appropriate for me to look through it again considering my previous standpoint,” Lindgren told the TT news agency.

Within a day of Lindren’s decision, it was revealed that internal investigators within the police department attempted to hide the extent of the 24-year-old’s injuries from his family and journalists.

Lindgren had abandoned his preliminary investigation into the matter last summer.

Despite the fact that a forensic medical examination report showed that the violent arrest of Liljeqvist led to his death, no police officers have ever been held to account.

The 24-year-old was arrested in Gothenburg in April 2008 after kicking a car. During the arrest, he was reportedly pinned to the ground by as many as four police officers. Liljeqvist was held down with such force and for so long that he eventually stopped breathing.

When prosecutors abandoned the preliminary investigation, they distributed a copy to journalists and Liljeqvist’s family. But several lines of the medical examiner’s report had been redacted by police.

In the original report, there are passages explaining that the 24-year-old had several haemorrhages on his body as well as injuries to his ribcage from baton blows.

The medical examiner also found haemorrhaging in Liljeqvist’s eyes resulting from him being held against the ground by police.

But the police had blacked out all the information about the injuries caused by police during Liljeqvist’s arrest in the publicly released version of the report.

At the same time, however, they let stand information indicating that the 24-year-old had LSD in his blood at the time of his death.

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EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

What happened?

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, according to police and participants.

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Moment theatre in Gubbängen, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, shortly after the attack.

According to Swedish media, one person was physically assaulted and two had paint sprayed in their faces.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence, with pepper spray, and vandalised the venue before throwing in some kind of smoke grenade which filled the foyer with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

The magazine’s head of education Klara Ljungberg was at the event in order to hold a lecture at the invitation of the two political parties.

What was the meeting about?

According to the Left Party’s press officer, the event was “a meeting about growing fascism”.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar described the event to public broadcaster SVT as an “open event, for equality among individuals”.

As well as Ljungberg from Expo, panelists at the event included anti-fascist activist Mathias Wåg, who also writes for Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet.

“They were determined and went straight for me,” Wåg told Expo just after the attack. “I received a few blows but nothing that caused serious damage.”

“I was invited to be on a panel in order to discuss anti-fascism with representatives from the Left Party and the Green Party,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but there’s obviously a risk when Expo and I are in the same place.”

What has the reaction been like?

All of Sweden’s parties across the political spectrum have denounced the attack, with Dadgostar describing it as a “threat to our democracy” when TT newswire interviewed her at the theatre a few hours after the attack occurred.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the conservative Moderates, called the attack “abhorrent”.

The Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals are currently in government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, while the Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party are in opposition.

“It is appalling news that a meeting hosted by the Left Party has been stormed,” Kristersson told TT. “I have reached out to Nooshi Dadgostar and expressed my deepest support. This type of abhorrent action has no place in our free and open society.”

“Right-wing extremists want to scare us into silence,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson wrote on X. “They will never be allowed to succeed.”

“The attack by right-wing extremists at a political meeting is a direct attack on our democracy and freedom of speech,” Green Party co-leader Daniel Helldén wrote on X. “My thoughts are with those who were affected this evening.”

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote in an email to TT that “political violence is terrible, in all its forms, and does not belong in Sweden.”

“All democratic forces must stand in complete solidarity against all kinds of politically motivated violence,” he continued.

His party has previously admitted to being founded by people from “fascist movement” New Swedish Movement, skinheads, and people with “various types of neo-Nazi contact”.

“It is an attack not only on the Left Party, Green Party and the Expo Foundation, but also on our entire democratic society,” Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok, who referred to the attackers as “Nazis”, wrote on social media. “Those affected have all my support.”

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson both referred to the attackers as “anti-democratic forces”.

“It is never acceptable for a political meeting to be stormed by anti-democratic forces,” Busch wrote. “There is no place for this in our society.”

“Anti-democratic forces like this represent a serious threat to our democracy and must be met with society’s hardest iron fist,” Pehrson said.

What about the attackers? Has anyone been arrested?

Not yet. The police had not made any arrests at the time of writing on Thursday morning.

According to TT, police did not want to comment on who could be behind the attack.

It is currently being investigated as a violation of the Flammable and Explosive Goods Act, assault, causing danger to others and disturbing public order.

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