Criminal charges and your personal information
I am writing to you regarding my situation which continues for almost five years and violates my GDPR rights and Human Rights. My name is Pawel Piotrowski, I am Polish citizen, currently live in Sweden and I am looking for legal representation. I am suspected of having committed a crime and subjected to proceedings against me without official charges. My personal data, name, age, marital status, physical appearance, location, health details, political opinions and details from my private life and my past are being shared widely with people around me, my employers, co-workers, roommates. At work I was recognised by hundreds of people I have never met before. Derogatory comments about my private life forced me to spend my breaks in the corridor. Managers were instructing my co-workers to report every interaction with me. In town I am getting recognised by physical appearance on the streets or in shops. People make comments with use of my name and nickname, taking photos. Sharing my personal data is without my consent. There are no official charges against me and I can only assume that spreading all this information is justify by public interest and protecting citizens. This situation not allowing me to have a normal life, forming relationships, making any future plans and keeping me in complete isolation. I would like to ask for your help in finding a legal way to ask authorities about proceedings against me. Who is my personal data controller and who is processor?
Lawline svarar
As I understand your question you wonder a) if you are under some form av investigation concering criminal charges and b) who can be able to spread your personal information.
We can start with the criminal charges. If you are under investigation, there is a thing called pre-trial confidentiality (förundersökningssekretess) which prevents details regarding an investigation to be spread to the public. This is an exception to the Swedish law regarding the principle of publicity (Offentlighetsprincipen). The prosecutor has more information available on their webiste, see attached link below.
https://www.aklagare.se/en/affected-by-crime/for-suspects/
If and when a criminal case goes to trial the suspect needs to be informed about the criminal charges, for instance, the suspect needs to be served the law suit. If the court does not serve the suspect in correct order they cannot proceed with the case, hence you need to know about the case for the state to proceed with the prosecution.
Regarding the question about who is spreading your personal information it is a bit harder to give you an good explanation to why, hence hard as well to give good advice. Personal information is quite accessible in Sweden, for instance you can find your personal number and adress quite easily online through different website. This in not illegal due to the strong principle of publicity we have in Sweden. Most of that information can be sought out through the authorities, hence it is not hidden or censored. Only if you have for instance a protected id (skyddad id) there is some hinders to receive personal information as mentioned above.
If you have been subjected to threats, you may be eligible for protected identity (skyddade personuppgifter), in which case access to your personal data is restricted. If you are granted protected identity, the tax authourity (Skatteverket) restrict access to information about you in the Swedish Population Register, such as your name and address. Under normal circumstances, as mentioned above, data held in the Swedish Population Register is available to the general public.
I hope you find the informtion above helpful. If you want to discuss the legal issue further you are more than welcome to contact our law firm through https://lawline.se/boka
