During the metoo autumn 2017, several men were accused of sexual abuse, and in the wake of the allegations, a number of women have been convicted of libel.

A group of well-known Swedish feminists thinks this is wrong and is therefore launching the Förtalskassan fund.

The purpose of the fund is to cover the cost of damages when women are convicted of libel after telling about alleged abuse in public.

- The idea is to be able to swisha voluntary contributions.

You can compare it to the trade union war fund during the industrial revolution.

There they organized a union and collected money to be able to strike, says Maria Sveland.

Criticizes the legal system

The initiators believe that judgments from recent years indicate an unfair legal system where perpetrators are often set free, while women are convicted of libel when they report abuse.

They refer to statistics that show that very few reported rapes lead to convictions.

The Defamation Fund describes itself as a form of civil disobedience whose purpose is to deal with societal injustices.

You want to arouse opinion and debate.

Can you see it as encouraging you to commit libel?

- That is not what we want and it will probably not be a problem.

About half of all women in the world are at some point exposed to abuse or harassment, but there are extremely few who tell, says Maria Sveland.

How do you know the accusations are true?

- We know that there are extremely few women who lie about sexual abuse.

It exists to an extremely small extent.

It is so guilt-ridden, shameful and associated with pain.

That's not a problem.

Do you do your own investigation into whether the accused persons' stories of abuse are true?

- No, we will not do that.

The criteria for receiving money is that you have a defamation sentence that has arisen because you have reported an abuse in connection with metoo.

Then we look at it and can together be helped to pay your damages, says Maria Sveland.

- We do not take a position on the debt issue and will not be a court of law.

We want to see a world where sexual crimes are taken seriously.

I'm not afraid that someone will abuse this, says Lo Kauppi, actor, director and one of the initiators of the fund.