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fullscreen The Supreme Court has decided that the trial against a woman accused of stabbing her former husband in the stomach must be retrialed. Archive image. Photo: Magnus Andersson/TT
The trial that led to a woman in Skåne being sentenced to two years in prison for serious assault against her husband was not fair and must be redone, the Supreme Court decides.
A crucial witness during the trial was a doctor who was in custody on suspicion of a serious drug crime – but the woman’s defense lawyer was not told that the doctor was a criminal suspect and in custody.
However, the prosecutor was fully aware of that. A fair trial requires that the parties are equal in the process, writes the Supreme Court in a press release.
The defense must be able to ask questions that, for example, aim to show that the witness is unreliable.
In this case, the doctor was later convicted of a serious drug offence. He abused cocaine and heroin, which also led to him mismanaging his work at a hospital in Scania.
It was he who had operated on the husband of the woman accused of assault who had been injured in the stomach by a knife stab. The woman was accused of causing the stabbing, which she denied. During the trial, the doctor testified against her, and the Court of Appeal accepted that.