Släckt rättssäkerhet för en knäckt gängkriminalitet? - Om anonyma vittnen som lösning på organiserad brottslighet

Sammanfattning: The parliamentary debate on the gang violence in Sweden resulted in a proposal for an assigned investigation on the introducing of an opportunity to testify anonymously. The investigation, which is now led on by the government, is one of several measures taken in order to end the culture of silence in organized criminality. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there are enough reasons for a use of anonymous witnesses, as a way of solving the problems with organized crime in Sweden. The essay presents applicable Swedish legislation as well as concerned European, Norwegian and Dutch law. In order to provide a critical discussion on the circumstances that might justify the establishment of an anonymous witness system in Sweden, the current problems of organized crime in Sweden as well as a few legal arguments in the debate, are presented. The use of anonymous witnesses is permitted in The European Convention of Human Rights, according to judgements settled in The European Court of Justice. Even so, the use still constitutes a breach on fundamental principles and procedural guarantees established in Swedish criminal law. Moreover, it cannot be established that anonymous testimonies would provide a higher clearance rate in organized crimes. Due to a comparison of interests in the main functions of the criminal procedures, there are reasons to believe that the use of anonymous witnesses in Swedish criminal law would impair the procedural guarantees of the defendant and simultaneously not increase the crime-solving efficiency. Other measures are suggested, as they do not restrain the accused’s procedural guarantees. Despite the need to maneuver the increasing problem with gang violence and the responsibility to ensure the protection of the witness, this essay finds that there are not enough reasons for a use of anonymous witnesses as a solution to the problem with organized crimes.