The Act on Enhanced Confidentiality for Plaintiffs and Witnesses was set to take effect on October 1, 2023, and was intended to protect people who testify about crimes. The purpose of the change in the law was that more people would be prosecuted – but the bill has received massive criticism from Sweden’s courts.
On 26 June, the Norwegian Courts Administration submitted a request to the Justice Committee that the provisions should be repealed.
Would require large resources
The criticism from the courts was primarily about the fact that the law would take a lot of resources, but not give a large dividend in the form of sentences imposed.
– Further confidentiality trials would have had very large consequences for the courts. Doing that kind of testing, in the very extensive preliminary investigations that we have today, would require very large judicial resources. This is at the same time that many judges are already sounding the alarm about a strained work situation, says Thomas Rolén, Director General of the Swedish Courts Administration, in a press release.
The decision to stop the law was taken by acclamation, that is, without a vote, in the Riksdag on Wednesday.
Unusual decision
According to the Riksdag’s justice committee, the proposed changes would have major, negative consequences.
That the law is stopped is described as extremely unusual by the committee’s chancellor Thomas Lindstam.
– I am not aware that it has happened before in modern times, he told TT.