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For the first time in 30 years, the law on violations of grave peace has been changed.
Nowadays, there is a serious crime that can result in a longer sentence and which, among other things, can be used if a perpetrator tries to hide a murder by handling the body.
A very confused and burned man comes running out of the forest. He says that he found his partner, who had been missing for some time, and that she is dead. Later he will be charged with murder, alternatively manslaughter, alternatively causing the death of another and breach of civil liberties. But he is only sentenced for the latter, to one year and six months in prison.
The body was in very poor condition when it was found and no cause of death could ever be determined. However, it was clear that the man had moved and hidden his partner’s body, according to the court.
– The investigation has not been able to determine where she died, how she died and, above all, not why she died. Experience suggests that whoever has an interest in handling a dead body is also involved in that person’s death. But for a guilty verdict, there must be concrete evidence, the president of the court told TT in connection with the verdict.
Hiding the body
On the first of July this year, more than ten years since the case above, the legislation regarding crimes against griftefrid was changed. First, the name was changed to the more modern “burial breach”. But the new law also means that there is now a grave violation of grave peace, which must be used in more serious cases. The penalty range is between six months and four years in prison.
A factor that should be able to influence the assessment of whether a violation of grave peace is serious is whether it can make an investigation into the death more difficult, for example if it is connected to a crime, the government’s legal council referral states.
It could be that the perpetrator inflicted severe damage on a corpse by, for example, burning or mutilating the body. Or that it has been hidden. In the most serious cases of breach of grave peace, when a corpse is burned or disfigured, for example, the upper part of the penalty scale must be used.
Even in the case of extensive vandalism of grave sites, courts must be able to sentence for grave breach of grave peace. Examples here could be a large number of overturned tombstones.
– But if it’s just a ruined flower arrangement or ruined planting, then it’s probably a violation of grave peace of the normal degree, said Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson (S) when the government presented the bill at the beginning of the year.
Difficulty with cause of death
Denise Guggenheimer Joandi is a forensic pathologist who has researched Swedish gang murders. Between 1991 and 2017, she and colleagues have found 43 cases of dismemberment in Sweden, where the majority appear to have been done precisely to hide the crime – what are called defensive dismemberments.
– There, the motive is primarily to get away with the crime or complicate the criminal investigation. In the second group, the offensive dismemberment, it is more about desecrating the body, alternatively there is no motive at all. The perpetrator may, for example, be psychotic, says Denise Guggenheimer Joandi.
For a coroner, dismemberment means that it may be more difficult to determine how the victim actually died.
– It may be that you do not find all body parts. It is much more common in the case of defensive cuts that the body parts are scattered in several places. It simply becomes more difficult for us to determine the cause of death in the end, says Denise Guggenheimer Joandi.
Eight years instead
This was also seen in her research material – in the defensive group the proportion of unsolved cases was greater compared to among lethal violence in general and compared to the offensive group. In some of the cases in the study, the perpetrators had only been sentenced for crimes against the freedom of imprisonment, as it was not possible to determine how the victim died.
In the future, even harsher punishments for grave breaches of grave privacy may be relevant. In connection with the Riksdag voting through the new law, it also directed an announcement, a proposal, to the government that the maximum penalty for grave breach of privacy should be eight years. They also want to see a clearer connection to cases where a perpetrator tries to complicate a criminal investigation, by concretely writing this into the legal text.
Denise Guggenheimer Joandi sees positively that the legislators want to make it clearer when the perpetrator makes it difficult for police and forensic investigations.
– After all, that is what happens, if you dismember a body and make our and the police’s work more complicated, you make a police investigation more difficult, because all cases of unclear deaths must be investigated by the police and forensic medicine. Then whether it is crime, accident or natural death, the investigation must show that.
Facts
Violation of grave peace
Since July 1, 2022, anyone who “unauthorizedly moves, damages or disgracefully treats a corpse or the ashes of a deceased person” can be sentenced for breach of grave peace. Anyone who “unauthorizedly opens a grave or destroys, damages or does mischief to a coffin, urn, grave or other resting place for the dead or a burial service” can also be sentenced for this.
The penalty is a fine or imprisonment for a maximum of two years.
Serious breach of privacy can result in imprisonment for a minimum of six months and a maximum of four years. In the assessment of whether the crime is serious, according to the text of the law, special consideration must be given to whether the perpetrator inflicted severe damage on a corpse or if the act entailed extensive destruction or “was otherwise of a particularly reckless or dangerous nature”.
It has not been very common to violate the peace of mind. Statistics from the Crime Prevention Council show that a total of 94 crimes against griftefrid were prosecuted in the years 2010–2020.
Source: Criminal Code, the Government’s Law Council referral.
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