A police officer in Stockholm is convicted of misconduct but acquitted of suspicion of assault. He was accused of kneeling a boy in the stomach and forcing his friend to undress naked.
“The district court convicts the police of misconduct consisting in causing the last-mentioned boy to pull down his pants and underpants to check if he had a weapon on him,” the court writes in a press release.
The incident took place in March 2022 in central Stockholm. Three 15-year-old boys had celebrated a birthday at a buffet restaurant and were running towards the bus so as not to be late home when they were stopped by a car with three civil police officers.
The police, who were alerted to an assault outside a nearby pub, wrestled the boys to the ground. One of them was kneed in the stomach and another was forced to strip naked.
“It was unpleasant, because there were a lot of people who passed by and they also laughed at the same time when they saw me completely naked,” the boy has said in questioning.
One of the officers, who allegedly kneed one boy and forced the other to strip naked, was charged in December with assault and misconduct. He is now being sentenced on the one charge. The penalty is a fine of a total of SEK 28,000. The police authority must also pay damages to the boy of SEK 25,000.
According to the prosecutor, the other police officers who participated in the incident did not exceed their powers.
If the verdict is appealed and the policeman is convicted of assault which is not minor, he risks losing his job.
The policeman denies wrongdoing.