Police employees are recruited by gang criminals to leak secret information, warn of various crackdowns and tell about working methods, which DN revealed and which TV4 Nyheterna has previously reported on.
One of the cases that Dagens Nyheter writes about concerns an investigator who secretly
had a love affair with Rawa Majid’s cousin.
Strömmer: “Very serious”
The revelation has provoked strong reactions from various quarters. Even Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) reacts strongly to the review.
– This is very serious information. It confirms that organized crime is a threat to the system, i.e. beyond the consequences for individual crime victims, says Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer.
Are you surprised when you read this that it was this widespread?
– Not really, to be honest. The presence of infiltrators, elements of corruption and pressure – we have seen patterns of that in other countries before and we
know that it also occurs in Sweden. It is also not the first time that the judiciary has been subjected to this either, he says.
At the same time, he calls it a “brutal confirmation” of what values can be lost if crime continues in the same way.
– It is clear that there are risks to trust in both the police and the judiciary
large. If you don’t manage to stop this, you can say that it risks damaging democracy.
Fights the problems
According to Strömmer, the police are conducting offensive work to combat infiltrators, pressure, threats and harassment.
– We must make it clear that if it is discovered, you will have very noticeable consequences. There we need to have a bit more to give, even though the punishment was toughened as recently as last year for breach of confidentiality, he says.
The government is now also reviewing the rules for corruption, misconduct and other things.
The expert: “Extremely serious consequences”
Anti-corruption expert Louise Brown believes that it has “extremely serious consequences”.
– It hinders how the police can carry out their work above all. It is evasive
of information, you leak information and you enable acts of violence, she says.
– Police employees know how to cover tracks. By extension, it is also difficult to feel that you can trust the police if there are threats, if there are actors on the inside working for crime, Brown continues.