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full screen Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT
Slightly funny scenes took place in the Stockholm District Court today.
Suspected terrorists were to be detained, the strictest imaginable secrecy prevailed, their identities were under no circumstances to be revealed.
But this weekend, the Nacka district court published the men’s names and social security numbers and residential addresses, in connection with the arrest petition being submitted to the court.
With something as simple as a phone call, the media houses got the information out.
It is customary for journalists to cover a detention hearing of this dignity for a short while before the president of the court decides on closed doors, Sweden is not the Soviet Union with secret processes.
But not this time. This time, the detention hearings were to take place without public access right from the first second.
Outside room 5 of the City Hall, we, some journalists, stood and tried to explain to Councilor Olof Roos that his decision was illogical, that his court had already told us who the suspects are.
It was like talking to a wall. The prosecutor had requested complete secrecy and then it had to be that way. End of discussion.
To summarize: the prosecutor submitted a remand petition to the court, after which the identities of the suspects became known, then the prosecutor requested that the remand hearings be anonymized so that the identities would not be known.
A few policemen stood leaning against a wall and watched the spectacle sullenly, high school students on field trips listened with interest, people came and went, an ordinary Monday in Sweden’s largest district court:
Bankruptcy hearing room 22, attempted violence against an official room 11, hazing room 30…
Incidents i sig not something to get high blood pressure over, the need for secrecy in a matter as serious as preparation for terrorist crimes is perfectly understandable, but the mess should be seen in the light of a dark trend in our times.
Slowly, step by step, barely noticeable, freedom of the press is being throttled in Sweden.
During the last mandate period, the social democratic government pushed through 53 changes to the law that reduced transparency into the actions and deeds of the public authorities, shows a compilation made by the Association of Journalists.
Ulf Kristersson & co are not a bit better.
The legacy bill on foreign espionage slipped through despite sharp protests, it was lucky that the revelation that Sweden was planning to help Saudi Arabia build a weapons factory came a few years ago, today it would possibly be illegal.
Then we have the electricity subsidy, the government decided that hush-hush will prevail for 20 years about who received money, a secrecy that is normally only given to secrets that could damage the security of the kingdom.
Further restrictions on the principle of publicity are underway, good luck to you local reporter who keeps an eye on the municipality’s diary in search of news, as the identity of decision makers in the future is anonymized, Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer has announced that access to preliminary investigations may be limited…
So the most important and fundamental task of journalism, the scrutiny of power, only becomes more difficult and more difficult and more difficult.
In the Town Hall hate the lawyers have other things to think about than freedom of the press.
Four detention hearings, two in the morning, two after lunch.
First up was a man who belongs to a criminal network and is accused of serious weapons offences.
The suspicions probably have to do with the automatic carbines that witnesses saw the police carrying out after the crackdown in Tyresö last Thursday.
He was taken into custody, the small press gathering outside was told.
Every room in the Stockholm district court has walls that can whisper about crime, drama and attention in newspapers, radio and television.
The fifth in particular is not among the more notable, although it was here that Lotta Engberg and some other famous artists, accused of having received black money for performances, fought for their honor and won.
It is most likely that the other three arrested, of which two brothers are suspected of colluding with the Islamic State in Somalia and of having prepared some kind of serious crime with ideological overtones, will remain locked up.
But from custody the step to conviction can be long.
Crimes of preparation are rarely easy to prove, it is a completely different matter once the truck has driven down Drottninggatan, and trials against suspected terrorists with acquittals are not lacking in Swedish criminal history.
The security police must act early in order not to risk human life. But if a raid takes place too early, before any criminal plans have taken concrete shape, prosecutors can have a tough time in court.
This balancing act is not simple.
In time, we will learn more about what the suspects look like. But if the suspicions are true, it seems to be something that Säpo has previously warned about, connections between serious organized crime and terrorism.
This is what they can look like, the threats of our time. Multifaceted, complex, difficult to grasp.
At the City Hall entrance, a security guard put in a snuff at the same moment I heard the sound of a flash in my mobile.
“JUST NOW: The Swedish flag is being raised at NATO headquarters.”
A young woman who said she was going to testify in a custody dispute asked for directions to a room that turned out to be on another floor.
Prosecutors and lawyers hurried past, another day-long effort to separate right from wrong and deliver some form of justice.
It crackled in the speaker, a woman’s voice:
“The hearing resumes in room twenty-two”.