Published 2 June 2024 at 13.38
Domestic. A woman who demonstrated against Israel in Lund was arrested for blue light sabotage when she sat down in front of a police bus and refused to move despite a blue light call, according to the police. But a video from the incident instead shows how the police arrest the woman for seemingly no reason.
– The investigation must show what happened, says Patric Fors, press spokesperson for the police, to Fria Tider.
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Adam Adyel, station commander at the police in Lund, stated yesterday for Sydsvenskan that the woman sat in front of the police car and received several calls to move, but because she refused, she was arrested for blue light sabotage .
– Then you look at it as a disturbance against the police, where the purpose was to seriously hinder or hinder the police's work. I think that is why there has been blue-light sabotage, said Adam Adyel to Sydsvenskan.
But on a video from the incident that the left academic Victor Pressfeldt published on X, none of what the police claim is visible. Instead, you see how the woman walks in front of the police car and demonstrates, and that she moves immediately at the police's signal. A few seconds later, however, a large number of police officers run out of the bus and arrest the woman, seemingly for no reason.
A so-called lie: “According to Adam Adyel, station commander at the police in Lund, the woman received several calls to move but refused. And since the police believe she prevented the patrol from doing its job, she is suspected of blue light sabotage." https://t.co/oZGeoiOVDG https://t.co/3P35cDj14H
— Victor Pressfeldt (@vpressfeldt) June 1, 2024
When Fria Tider calls police spokesperson Patric Fors, he first tries to make it sound like he hasn't seen the film in question.
– No, I don't think so, he says.
Don't believe? Have you seen any other film from this event?
– I have seen a shorter film.
And what does it show then?
– That it is a woman who gets arrested.
Yes, exactly that. And do you see her sitting in front of a police bus in that film?
– No, not what can be seen, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.
< b>Does she get any calls to move around then, which she doesn't obey?
– Not for me to comment on.
What has been going on on the film that you have watched then?
– I cannot guarantee that what I see on the internet is correct…
We obviously have saw the same movie. And in the film I've seen, a woman walks in front of a police bus, and then the police honk at her and then she moves. And then three policemen run out and grab her and throw her into the police bus. Sound familiar?
– It fits well with the little film I've seen too, but if something happened before, I can't answer.
Sure, sure. There may have been a blue light sabotage earlier by the same person. But what is seen on the film, is it some kind of blue light sabotage?
– I cannot comment on that, because it is an assessment that the patrol has made on the spot. I can't sit and say afterwards if it's right or wrong.
Carl Ridderstråle is a lawyer and has previously represented protesters who were attacked by the police. According to him, it is clear that what is seen on the video is not blue light sabotage.
– The woman moves immediately when the police honks at her, so what she does is not likely to seriously hinder or hinder the police's activities, says he.
– What I see in the film is not blue-light sabotage but a completely unjustified intervention against a person who is exercising his constitutionally protected right to demonstrate.
According to Ridderstråle, it should rather be investigated whether the police officers may have been guilty of any crime. If they arrested the woman without any valid reason for it, it could be unlawful detention or misconduct, according to the lawyer.
– And have they also made up incorrect information that the woman sat on the road and refused to move on its own it can also be punishable.
Ridderstråle emphasizes that he can only comment on what is seen on the film and that he does not know if the woman may have done something at another time that may have prompted the intervention.
When Fria Tider calls the woman on Sunday (and claims to be a left-wing newspaper) she states that she was in front of the police bus twice, and that it was only the latter time, which can be seen on the video, that the police honked at her. However, she never sat in front of the police bus, but walked in front of it in step with the demonstration train, she says.
– Maybe 15 minutes passed between these two occasions.
After being taken into custody, the woman demanded to have a lawyer before the police questioned her. Something to which she is entitled as a suspect for blue light sabotage, as it is a crime that can result in life imprisonment.
However, the police never arranged for a lawyer, but instead released the woman without arrest. At the same time, she received information that the suspicions remain, and that she is also suspected of drug offences. Judging by everything based solely on the patrol's observations.
– It felt completely absurd. I really don't use drugs. So it felt like they were trying to set me up for something else when they realized that this blue light sabotage thing doesn't work. I have tried to contact health care to do my own drug test now to disprove this, but it is really completely absurd.
Fria Tider has sought the prosecutor in the case for a comment. However, according to police spokesperson Patric Fors, it is not possible to speak with any responsible preliminary investigation manager until Monday.