Published 15 July 2021 at 11.51
Law & Justice. The researchers who revealed the Macchiarini affair, one of Sweden's biggest medical scandals, were themselves branded as complicit in research fraud by Karolinska Institutet, without the opportunity to defend themselves against the accusations or appeal. The whistleblowers are now reporting Sweden to the European Court of Justice.
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– It is incomprehensible that an authority can make unreasonable and unfounded accusations against an individual without being given any opportunity to defend themselves, says Professor Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, who is one of the accused researchers, in a press release.
Four whistleblowers who have revealed serious misconduct and research fraud at Karolinska Institutet (KI) and Karolinska University Hospital (KS,) are now reporting Sweden to the European Court of Human Rights, because they have not been assured of effective judicial protection against reprisals.
Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, Oscar Simonson and Matthias Corbascio revealed the so-called Macchiarini affair. A revelation that in The Washington Post has been described as the biggest medical scandal in Sweden's history.
In parallel with the Macchiarini affair, Katarina Le Blanc discovered another scandal at KI. About seventy seriously ill patients had been treated without proper permission with experimental injections of placental cells, in several cases with heart attacks and cerebral haemorrhages as a result.
In a decision in 2018, KI determined that Paolo Macchiarini was guilty of research fraud. But in the same decision, KI also branded the whistleblowers as accomplices to the cheating, without being given the opportunity to respond to the accusations in court. Despite the fact that the decision had serious consequences for their research careers, it could not be appealed by law.
With the help of the Center for Justice, whistleblowers are now turning to the European Court of Justice for redress.
– The right to Being able to appeal an intervening authority decision to a court in order to be able to defend oneself against serious accusations is fundamental in a state governed by the rule of law. It is important both for whistleblower protection in medical research and for patient safety in Sweden that this case is tried by the European Court, says Alexander Ottosson, lawyer at the Center for Justice and representative for whistleblowers.