Statement on the information on the grounds for detention provided by the prosecutor to defence counsel

Summary of the decision: A defence counsel reported a prosecutor for his application of the provision in Section 9 a of Chapter 24 of the Code of Judicial Procedure (1942:740) that a detainee has the right to be informed of the grounds for a detention decision. The defence counsel complained that the information provided was far too general and failed to comply with legal requirements.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman’s review has been hampered by the prosecutor’s failure to document which grounds for detention the detainee and their defence counsel were informed of. The review has also been made more difficult as it has not been possible to clarify why the information conveyed to defence counsel was significantly briefer than the information the prosecutor claimed to have provided.

It is the opinion of the Parliamentary Ombudsman that, given the information provided by the prosecutor to the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s investigation along with, for example, the detailed statement of the criminal act as charged served in conjunction with detention, the prosecutor can generally be considered to have fulfilled his notification obligation pursuant to Section 9 a of Chapter 24. The Parliamentary Ombudsman therefore does not direct any criticism at the prosecutor in this regard. The prosecutor is however criticised for the shortcomings in documentation.