Swedish lawyer Elisabeth Fritz claims that in the majority of rape cases she has had to work on the suspects have been individuals from migrant backgrounds and has called on the government to “lift the lid” on the issue.
Ms Fritz took the unusual step of writing about the issue on her Instagram account, and posted a picture of herself having just come from a district court in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
She wrote, “The rape reports are increasing and at my desk and I have many rapes and group violence. The majority of the suspects I meet in these cases have a foreign background.”
She then claimed that her colleague contacted the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) to examine the national statistics on migrant crime. “Brå also has no number, because such statistics do not exist,” she said.
“If we are to work preventively and stop rape it’s time to find out how the perpetrator looks. We must take the matter seriously and dare to lift the lid. How else will we fight these terrible and tough rapes committed to all victims? It is the perpetrator that is the problem. I will proceed with the question because this is NOT acceptable” she added.
Ms Fritz is just the latest Swede involved in the justice system to blow the whistle on the extent of migrant crime in the country. Earlier this year Swedish police officer Peter Springare caused a national uproar when he claimed that the majority of criminals he dealt with were migrants.
Springare was initially threatened with charges of hate speech and investigated by the police but the charges were later dropped and he was offered a column in the Swedish newspaper Nyheter Idag. The reasoning for offering him a column was so that the paper, rather than Springare would be responsible for the content of his writing and will give him protection from prosecution.
Shortly after Springare blew the whistle on the problem he was backed up by criminology professor Leif GW Persson who said, “Yes, I have made the same observation,” and added, “anyone with eyes to see can know who is doing these kinds of actions.”