From: schuurman (dollehon@dds.nl)
Date: 24 Jan 2002 14:26 uur
Nu weer een hoop Engels. S.
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Please sign a call for justice after the riots in Gothenburg, Sweden, in
June 2001!
Please sign this by sending an e-mail with your name, city and country to
erik.wijk@odata.se (Organizations or individuals)
It was also published in a major swedish newspaper recently and is at
www.manifest.se/upprop in different languages and will later be presented to
the Department of Justice in Sweden.
Call for Justice after GBG 2001
We the undersigned of this Call for Justice are deeply troubled by the
judicial aftermath of the occurrences during the EU Top Meeting in
Gothenburg, Sweden, in June of 2001.
We have concluded that:
· 50 civilian citizens have been accused, or risk being accused, in
conjunction with the occurrences in Gothenburg. Another 450 are identified
suspects waiting investigation.
· Meanwhile, none of the over 100 complaints filed with reason of police
violence have lead to charges being pressed. We know that only a quarter of
all those who received medical treatment after the riots in Gothenburg were
policemen. We ask ourselves if these numbers hold up proportionally to that
which actually happened.
· The incarceration of many of the accused young people has been, in
contradiction to the meaning of the law, excessively long (1-3 months).
Those incarcerated have, as a matter of routine, been held in isolation.
· The punishment for rioting has suddenly increased ten-fold or more.
Currently, nearly 30 young demonstrators have been sentenced for rioting
during the occurrences in Gothenburg. In the past, the punishment for this
crime has ranged from community service or probation to a few months
imprisonment. However, the average punishment for the occurrences in
Gothenburg has been one year and nine months. For instance, four teenagers
have been sentenced to between two and three years imprisonment. These
harsher levels of punishment, when appealed, have been sustained by higher
courts.
· In several cases, the accused have been sentenced collectively (up to
eight individuals and up to four years imprisonment) with identical charges
and identical repercussions. All have been charged without their individual
actions being documented or taken into account. This lack of individual
accountability exemplifies the non-existence of justice.
· The prosecutors have used every opportunity to bind the accused to political
activities and organisations - ranging from actual membership to supposed
sympathies.
· Many witnesses that may have been able to speak in the defence of the
accused, have chosen not to witness for fear of being themselves accused and
treated in a similar degrading manner by the police and the judicial system.
· Film and photo materials taken by witnesses, and then confiscated by the
police, have - according to the same police force - been lost and therefore
can not be used as evidence. When defence lawyers have requested to use the
police's own film materials from certain places and times during the riots,
the police have notified them that such materials do not exist. At the same
time, prosecutors have been able to use film materials from these exact
places and times in other cases.
· During several trials, the prosecutors have been allowed to show a
emotionally-charged film from the worst riot scenes of the happenings in
Gothenburg, even when the accused in the case have not even been anywhere
near the scenes portrayed onscreen.
· The prosecutors have in at least one trial, shown a film where the
soundtrack was manipulated. Research of this film materials origin has shown
that the manipulation occurred while the film was being processed by either
the police or the prosecutor.
· Other accused individuals have, in separate circumstances, also claimed
that evidence against them has been falsified.
· The prosecutor has categorised the police raid of the Schillerska school
building, where card-playing and sleeping youths were dragged out onto the
schoolyard, and the five hour long police containment of a peaceful protest
manifestation at Järntorget, as a "violent riot". This categorisation leads
to the fact that possible witnesses of, or lodgers of complaints of, these
acts to risk being charged for participation in these "violent riots".
· During the EU Top Meeting in Gothenburg, no attempt was made to enter or
stop the meeting with the use of violent methods. However, everything from
the prosecutors charges to the documents containing court decisions, contain
the assertion that the accused attempted to stop the democratic process by
stopping the EU Top Meeting. This assertion lacks all factual basis.
· No firearms or explosives have been found in the possession of the accused
or in the possession of the other 30,000 to 40,000 Swedish and foreign
nationals manifesting their opinions in Gothenburg from the 14th to the 16th
of June, 2001.
· The High Court has, to this date, not tried an appeal of any of the cases
pertaining to the occurrences in Gothenburg.
We demand that:
· The prosecutors suspected manipulation of evidence be investigated with
the utmost of priority.
· The High Court try the appeals of several of the cases pertaining to the
occurrences in Gothenburg; with special attention given to the reasonability
of the harshness of punishment.
· If evidence is found to have been tampered with and/or the High Courts
find unreasonably high levels of punishment have been dealt out, that all
the cases pertaining to the occurrences in Gothenburg be tried in appeals
courts and in those cases where sentences have been ratified, that are held.
We additionally demand that:
· All complaints lodged against the police be investigated by a special,
independent commission. If the constitution of such a commission requires
the passing of new laws, then we recommend that they be so passed.
· All of the police's filmed materials be made available to the defence lawyers.
· The accused be tried and judged with a high degree of individualisation.
· The prosecution remove their categorisation of the occurrences at the
Schillerska school and Järntorget on the 16th of June as a "violent riot".
· That the freedom of opinion of every citizen and organization is respected
and that political opinions are not used against defendents in the courts of
law.
· The trials pertaining to the occurrences in Gothenburg be moved to neutral
courts and communities and organisations; which means, courts far removed
geographically from Gothenburg.
We urge all citizens and organisations, with no regard to their political
leanings, to support this call for the defence of justice.
(Please sign this by sending an e-mail with your name, city and country to
erik.wijk@odata.se)
Most grateful.
Gerd P.
participant in Parents 2001,
a network created after the riots in June last year
http://members01.chello.se/maeglin/
(only in Swedish, but of course you can contact us in English)
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