"It is a high amount, but we believe this should be seen in light of how long these people have had their lives and careers destroyed," says lawyer Filip Rydin.
The men were charged in 1988 with the highly publicized murder of 27-year-old Catrine da Costa, who was found dismembered in Stockholm in the summer of 1984. The court acquitted the men of murder, but at the same time ruled that they had dismembered the woman. The statute of limitations for that offence had expired by then, and the men were not convicted of it.
As they were acquitted on all counts, they could not appeal the verdict's conclusion regarding the dismemberment to the Court of Appeal.
Tried to get redress
In a later trial, the Court of Appeal also ruled that they had dismembered the woman, which led to their medical licenses being revoked. The doctors have tried several times to get their licenses reinstated, but failed.
In 2024, the case was highlighted in SVT's "Documents from the Inside: The Swedish Massacre". The documentary showed a number of errors that occurred during the process and it became clear that the accusation had been made on very weak grounds.
As a consequence of the processes, the doctors' lives were shattered. Teet Härm told SVT that he had lived almost completely isolated for 40 years.
"I don't consider myself alive, I consider myself dead," he said.
“Crushed their lives”
Lawyers Thomas Olsson, Filip Rydin and Alparslan Tügel took on the task of representing the men in a process to seek redress - and on Monday they submitted an application for the men to receive compensation from the state ex gratia. This means that the government pays a sum "out of grace", that is, without being legally bound.
"We have formulated it as follows: we demand that the government award them five million kronor each, or the amount that the government finds reasonable," says Filip Rydin.
The court's designation of the men as responsible for a dismemberment they were not even charged with has, to put it simply, "crushed their lives," the lawyers write.
"That's what's behind this whole circus," says Rydin.
In their opinion, too much time has passed to seek redress in court. They therefore chose to appeal to the government for compensation.
"After the work we have done, we can show on good grounds that they are innocent. The problem with getting a retrial is that this case is so old that key people they would have wanted to call in the retrial application are deceased. That is why we have had to take this approach."
Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) said in a comment that the application will be "prepared in the usual manner".
2022: Brothers Robin Dahlén and Christian Karlsson received one million kronor each in ex gratia compensation, after they were wrongly accused of killing four-year-old Kevin in Arvika in 1998.
2018: Around 600–700 transgender people who were forcibly sterilized between 1972–2013 in connection with changing their legal gender were granted compensation of SEK 225,000 each.
2015: After mass vaccination against swine flu in 2009, more than 300 Swedes fell ill with the chronic and neurological disease narcolepsy. In 2015, it was decided to provide state compensation of an "ex gratia nature" to some of those affected.
2013–2014: Children who were placed in orphanages or foster homes between 1920 and 1980 and were neglected or subjected to serious abuse or neglect were given the opportunity to apply for compensation from the state.
2007: A woman received 200,000 kronor ex gratia after she suffered serious injuries during childbirth. The woman turned to the government after being denied compensation from insurance companies, Personskadereglering AB (PSR) and the Patient Injury Board, when it was determined that no one in the healthcare sector had committed any wrongdoing.
