Two police officers were interrogated after the attack in Babak Karimi's apartment on March 12, 2020. The first was outside the home and the second came in after Babak was laid on the floor and shocked by electricity.

The two police officers from the task force who participated in the actual arrest are never questioned.

Woke up by masked police in the bedroom: "Hit me 15 times" 

"May not interrogate"

The prosecutor's office bases the decision on the following: Babak Karimi could not say which of the police officers did what.

According to prosecutor Lena Kastlund, it is therefore not possible to determine which of them may have committed a crime.

Therefore, none of them should be questioned.

- That's how we work.

Those who may be suspected of crimes must be heard as suspects.

Here we end up in a border country where we do not reach reasonable suspicion.

Then we must not interrogate them, she says.

It is unusual for police officers to be notified of suspicion

The working method is confirmed by the Special Prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor's Office, Anders Jakobsson.

According to him, it is usually required that a reported police officer is reasonably suspected in order for an interrogation to be held.

Interrogating the police as "another", ie neither suspect nor witness, is unusual.

- You have to be very careful with it.

If someone states that he has committed a crime during such an interrogation, it may be more difficult to use the information at a later stage, he says.

At the same time, it is very unusual with criminal suspicions in cases involving police violence in the service, SVT's review shows.

In only 3 percent of these cases between 2016 and 2020, decisions on so-called criminal suspicion have been made (see fact box).

Gets strong criticism

The Public Prosecutor's Office's method is met with sharp criticism from several experts that SVT spoke to.

According to the experts, interrogating a person for information, in order to later at a later stage inform the same person of a suspicion, is standard in Swedish police investigations.

- It is a completely wrong attitude.

That during a preliminary investigation not interrogating the police officers who participated in the reported crime could be investigated as a misdemeanor, says the interrogation expert and former director of studies at the Police Academy Christer Nyberg.

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The police who woke Babak Karimi were wearing army shoes, bulletproof vests and weapons, he says.

Photo: Private / Christoffer Hjalmarsson / SVT