Dinesh Sakaria - Sweden

November 04

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In late August 2005 Dinesh Sakaria commenced his prison sentence. He continues to fight for justice.

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Dinesh Sakaria, a 56 year old British national resident in Sweden, is the victim of a terrifying attack and police xenophobia.

On the 10 July 2003, a drug addict with several previous convictions attacked Dinesh, unprovoked, with a hammer. Dinesh tried to defend himself and screamed out for help. The man pushed Dinesh down the stairwell of the house they were in, causing him to fracture his left hip. When the police arrived, the man told them that it was he who had been attacked.

The police noted his injuries and the blood spots on his clothing and arrested Dinesh. They did not conduct a proper investigation and did not take note of Dinesh’s account of events. In spite of his injuries, Dinesh was dragged into a police car and taunted with racist remarks about being ‘another hypocritical immigrant’.

Three hours later, Dinesh was taken to a hospital where he had a major operation on his hip. He still suffers from the injury and according to his doctor, may never fully recover.

Dinesh was charged with grievous assault without being questioned. He was denied access to a lawyer, his family, an interpreter and the British Consulate. No documents were translated for him. He was detained for 21 days and access to his family and lawyer were severely restricted.

Despite the lack of evidence and the forensic report regarding the attacker's minor injuries, the Lund District Court found Dinesh guilty and sentenced him to 150 hours community service and 19000 Skr in damages.

Although the sentence was relatively low, Dinesh appealed to clear his name. He was confident that he would get a fair trial at the High Court of Appeals. However, he was shocked when the court not only upheld the conviction but increased the sentence to 8 months imprisonment. An application to the Swedish Supreme Court was denied. This is no surprise, as the Supreme Court grants leave to appeal only in a small minority of cases.

Fair Trial Issues

1. This case demonstrates the damage caused by apparent poor police work, especially where an early conclusion is drawn by investigators. Here, once they had made their mind up, the investigation was compromised.
2. There appears to be a strong racial element to this case.
3. The judgment at the District Court in Lund did not take the video tape of the scene into consideration, which contradicted several parts of the statement of the alleged victim. He claimed, for example, that he had not been able to call for help because he could not find his phone, whereas the tape shows that the phone was lying in the middle of the table.
4. The doctor who examined the attacker stated that his injuries were so minor that it would be impossible for her to conclude whether a hammer had caused them.
5. The court also ignored the psychiatric report on Dinesh, which states that he is a non-violent person.
6. Dinesh was often not given a qualified interpreter so could not follow court proceedings.