Today, the Swedish state is reported to the Chancellor of Justice by the human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders and relatives of Sinthu Selvarajah who died in connection with a police intervention in 2014. A preliminary investigation against the police has been resumed several times after Ekot’s investigation of the case. Now the relatives are demanding compensation from the state.
– It is a way to mark that this is wrong and this the state must ensure that it does not happen again, says Sammi Selvarajah who is the sister of Sinthu Selvarajah.
It’s gone almost 6 years ago 28-year-old Sinthu Selvarajah died in connection with a police intervention at the hospital in Västerås. After Ekot examined the case, the preliminary investigation against the police involved has been resumed and closed several times. Two years ago, the Public Prosecutor made the unique decision to take over the preliminary investigation himself. Last year, the Public Prosecutor also closed it down.
– I think the reason why it has never led to anything every time you have opened the preliminary investigation again is precisely because you have not done it properly from the beginning. You have not interrogated everyone immediately after, you have let the police talk to each other and you have not asked the right questions when you have interviewed the police. All this makes it harder to come up with something. And that’s why you open and open because you see that something is wrong. And that’s what the report is about: That the preliminary investigation is so poorly done that nothing has been concluded, says Sammi Selvarajah.
Sinthu Selvarajah’s parents and two sisters are now reporting the state to the Chancellor of Justice along with the human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders. They demand a total of SEK 800,000 in damages.
Ekot’s previous investigation of the case has shown, among other things, that the police and prosecutors failed to interrogate important witnesses, and that the police were given leading questions during their interrogation. Among other things, this is what makes Civil Rights Defenders think that the preliminary investigation was not done in an objective way from the beginning.
Ekot has applied the prosecutor who led the preliminary investigation then, and she does not want to appear for an interview today. Annika Åkerberg is a lawyer at Civil Rights Defenders:
– Civil Rights Defenders report the shortcomings in the investigation because the shortcomings are so serious that it is not possible to prove what has happened. And that makes it impossible to hold anyone accountable for Sinthus’ death.
What do you hope this will lead to?
– Above all, that it should not happen again. Making a thorough and objective assessment is a prerequisite for Sweden to also live up to the international agreements on protecting the right to life, says Annika Åkerberg.
Source: ICELAND NEWS