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| Domenic and Dad, a close, loving relationship. |
Today, December 20, 2010, Christer Johansson was brought before a Swedish judge to face trial for his crimes against Sweden. While we do not yet know the outcome of this "trial" what we do know in leading up to today's legal circus is that Christer Johansson has less rights than Swedish thieves, rapists and murderers.
Since November 24th, the behind-the-scenes legal battle has focused on securing the best possible defense for Johansson, who has requested representation by Trygve Emstedt, Gävle, a lawyer with 30 years experience specializing in human rights. Incorporated into Sweden's constitution in January 1995, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), under Article 6, guarantees every Swedish citizen the right to choose their own representative and the right to a fair trial as provided within the foundation of a legally secure process.
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| Father and son, a strong, loving bond. |
In direct defiance of Swedish and European Union laws, Gotland City Courts have refused Johansson's guaranteed rights by rejecting his appeal for of a defense by Emstedt and has instead continues to maintain Shantu Brahmbhatt as his public defender. Apparently, everyone in Sweden enjoys the guarantee of ECHR Article 6 except Christer Johansson.
There two very good reasons why Johansson has rejected Brahmbhatt as his counsel. First, having only recently been accepted to the bar in June 2010, Brahmbhatt has only negligible and even questionable experience before the court. Naturally, Johnasson desires, and is guaranteed, to exercise his right to obtain the best defense available while he defends his right to liberty.
Secondly, Johansson is only too aware of Brahmbhatt's inept legal counsel, for it is Brahmbhatt who was appointed by Gotland City Courts to defend Annie Johansson's rights as Domenic's mother. All who have been following the Johansson case since 2009 realize Brahmbhatt, as Annie Johansson's defender, has done little more than appear before Gotland's courts and has simply followed the edicts of Gotland Social Services. To date, Brahmabhatt has never forged an independent defense of Annie Johansson's rights, therefore it is not to be expected that she would forge an independent defense of Christer Johansson before the Gotland bench today. Earlier this year, Annie Johansson appealed to the courts to have Brahmabhatt removed as her public defender. Her appeal was met with a thumbing by the Swedish courts, as well.
In addition to fact that Article 6 of the ECHR, ratified in Sweden's constitution, guarantees Christer Johansson the choice of legal representation, the aforementioned reasons should have been enough for Gotland City Courts to grant Johansson new legal counsel. However, as we've witnessed since June 25, 2009, when armed police swarmed an India bound jet just before it taxied the runway at Sweden's Stockholm-Arlanda Airport removing then 7 year-old Domenic without a warrant and without ever charging Christer and Annie Johansson with a crime, Sweden's courts, especially those on Gotland Island, seem to operate under their own laws of justice, ignoring the rights of this family under Sweden's constitution and the ECHR.Below is translated text from a story out of Sweden regarding Christer's trail today
Dad on trial for kidnapping
I only wanted to see my son. That's how the man in his 40's explained it who was today on trial for illegally having abducted his son placed into foster care.
It was last November, when the man was meant to have had a supervised meeting with his son, that he pulled his son into his car and drove away. For a couple of days he kept his son with him before the police could arrest him.
Today the main proceedings took place at Gotland district court. The prosecution against the man was charged as kidnapping, or possibly illegal deprivation of liberty.
The man explained his actions with having to see his son, but he doesn't feel he's committed any crime.
The court considers it proven that he's committed the acts he's been indicted for, but before a sentence and sanction is delivered, he's to go through a major investigation by forensic psychiatry.
Hence the main proceedings won't end for another four weeks. Until then the man remains in jail.
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In another news account from Sweden, we've learned that Domenic gave a video testimony regarding the time he spent with his father and family after Christer took him home for a few days. According to the news account, Domenic told the court that when his father took him, he was scared at first but then he thought it was really great to be with his father and other relatives. He described his time away from state care as an adventure and had nothing negative to say about the experience.
This story can be found here:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=94&artikel=4250998
Generally, most people suspected of crimes here in Sweden are released after initial interrogation, even people the average person would consider quite dangerous. Compare the justice in this case with for example the Iraqi immigrant who was convicted of rape against children and was sentenced to two years in prison in early 2009, with a deporation order to follow. Well, now the government decided that people won't be sent back to Iraq any more, so he's now a free man here, and his whereabouts are unknown to the authorities: http://svt.se/2.126217/1.2240525/valdtaktsman_slapptes_fri
ReplyDeleteAnother comparison of relevance is the "Örebro paedophile" case that I've written about in my book, which took place during the late 90's. This young man had moved in with a woman and raped her two children regularly during a period of over a year. When time came for a criminal trial, this woman naturally knew nothing about it and was released from custody after two weeks, while Christer has already been incarcerated for a whole month. The paedophile himself was sentenced to psychiatric care, with plenty of furloughs.
You can tell that the justice system here doesn't care that much about what happens to regular people, but the government must not be disrespected or defied, and that's Christer's real crime in not following the directions set for the supervised meeting.
Just about all traditional crime has lenient punishment here, but there are a couple of areas where the government is still vigilant in punishing offenders: Speech offenses ("agitation against ethnic group"), unlicensed guns and child custody. The reason for this is that though not officially labelled as such, they're crimes against the state in practice.
You make an excellent point, Daniel. It supports my contention that thieves, rapists and murderers have more rights than Christer Johansson.
ReplyDeleteWhat a travesty and tragedy. The world is watching Sweden!! God is watching as well.
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