Published 29 October 2024 at 08.11
Law & Justice. When Jonathan Ravelin was going to swipe a friend, his bank ID didn't work. It turned out that the Tax Agency had registered him as deceased in the civil registry. Only after seven weeks did bank accounts and ID documents work again. With the help of the Center for Justice, he is suing the state to put an end to the wrong death declarations that have so far affected over 100 people.
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– Everything was blocked. ID documents, bank accounts, services. And the partner became the sole guardian of the children. This can't happen, it was like I didn't exist anymore, says Jonathan Ravelin.
It was in November 2023 that father of two Jonathan Ravelin in Olofström discovered that the Swedish Tax Agency had registered him as dead in the population register. It turned out that the Swedish Tax Agency, without checking the information, used a false death certificate as the basis for the decision to deregister him from the population register. As a consequence, authorities, banks and other private actors were notified of the death. But Jonathan Ravelin was not dead and the doctor who allegedly signed the death certificate did not exist.
A week later, Jonathan Ravelin was again registered as alive in the civil registry. But it took another six weeks before he regained working ID documents and access to his finances. Meanwhile, he had to borrow money from friends and relatives to be able to pay bills and buy food for the family.
Jonathan Ravelin is not alone in being affected. According to information to DN, the Tax Agency has incorrectly registered over 100 people as deceased in recent years. Inadequate checks on death certificates submitted as physical forms are one of the reasons for the incorrect death registrations.
Inadequate checks on physical forms also cause problems for other authorities. Last summer, Ekot revealed how the Swedish Transport Agency, without checking ownership change forms, allowed serious criminals to register cars of innocent people, which were then used in murders and shootings. And in the Falcon Funds mess, the Pensions Authority moved tens of thousands of pension savers' holdings to sham funds with the support of falsified fund exchange forms that were not checked.
With the help of the Center for Justice, Jonathan Ravelin is suing the state to stop the erroneous death certificates. He requests 20,000 kroner in damages because his rights according to the EU's data protection regulation (GDPR) and the European Convention have been violated.
– It is unacceptable that the Tax Agency registers people as dead without sufficient checks. The state has far-reaching responsibility for the accuracy of information in the population register and other public registers. Jonathan Ravelin's case can become a guide and tighten the requirements for all authorities when they process important personal data. Inadequate checks must not lead to people getting hurt, says Elsa Haggård, lawyer at the Center for Justice and attorney for Jonathan Ravelin together with lawyers Henrietta Cahn and Lisa Greene, in a press release.