Severe criticism of a duty officer at Umeå Prison for failing to check whether an individual who was no longer remanded in custody had been released

Summary of the decision: A defendant in a criminal case was remanded to a specific remand prison but was temporarily held in another prison prior to a main hearing in the court of appeal.

At the end of the main hearing, the court of appeal decided that the defendant was no longer to be held on remand in the case. The decision was sent to remand prison to which the defendant was originally remanded. A duty officer at a prison who was also responsible for monitoring emails to the remand prison in question confirmed receipt of the decision to revoke the remand order. He asked a prison officer to process the inmate’s release, but did not subsequently check to ensure that this had been done. As the remand prison in which the defendant was being held was unaware of the court of appeal’s decision, the defendant was deprived of liberty without legal grounds for just over six hours before being released.