Director of Public Prosecution Mikael Björk has decided to resume the discontinued investigation concerning two persons who had synthetic tracheas implanted. Both injured parties have passed away. The surgeon is nowsuspected on reasonable groundsof two cases of causing another's death, gross crime.

On 12 October 2017, the investigation was discontinued concerning the surgeon who was formerly employed at Karolinska University Hospital. One injured party and the relatives of two other injured partieswho passed away requested a review.

The review has been carried out by the Prosecution Development Centre of the Swedish Prosecution Authority.

- We have chosen to review the entire case, i.e. all three patients who had their tracheas replaced. The investigation will now be resumed concerning two of the patients; a woman from Turkey and a man from Iceland. The medical evidence concerning the third patient, a man from the US, is not sufficient and therefore this investigation will not be reopened, said Director of Public Prosecution Mikael Björk.

To resume the investigation is a prerequisite for initiating aprosecution, should the prosecutor decide to do so in the future. It is still too early to form an opinion as to which decision the prosecutor will make.

- I have made adifferent judicial assessment to the former prosecutor. This does not mean that the prosecutor made an incorrect assessment as the legal position is unclear. There are only a few directive judgements from the Supreme Court. However, in my opinion there exist the pre-conditions to resume the parts of the investigation that concern the Icelandic man and the Turkish woman, said Mikael Björk.

Director of Public Prosecution Mikael Björk will be responsible for the resumed investigation.

Decisions (in Swedish)

Beslut åm-2017-6793(pdf)

Beslut åm-2017-6793.2(pdf)

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