Field Notes

entity

Joy Rahman

StatusStableUpdatedStands on3 sourcesSupportsnotes

Joy Rahman, a home care worker, was convicted in 1994 of murdering a 72-year-old woman in Sätra, Stockholm, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court rejected review later that year.

The case against him relied on circumstantial connections rather than forensic evidence: he had visited a store that sold lighting fluid of the same type poured over the victim, a Christmas decoration used to strangle her allegedly came from another person in his care, and the prosecution cited a money motive supported by ethnic stereotypes rather than evidence.1

Reopening and acquittal

Journalist Dick Sundevall and lawyer Peter Althin investigated the case and discovered new evidence. In January 2002, the Supreme Court granted Rahman a new trial. He was acquitted by the Svea Court of Appeal in May 2002, after serving 8 years in prison — at the time, the longest any person had been imprisoned in Sweden for a wrongful conviction.2

Rahman received approximately SEK 10.2 million (roughly USD 1.3 million) in compensation. He used much of the money to establish the Joy Rahman Welfare Foundation in his birthplace of Gopalgonj, Bangladesh, which provides healthcare and micro-loans to poor people.3

Significance for the wiki

Rahman is one of three named individuals in Rättssäkerhet in Swedish criminal cases whose convictions were overturned only after external investigation, supporting the claim that Sweden’s Correction channel runs through journalism rather than internal institutional control.

  1. Joy Rahman, Registry of Exonerations. ↩

  2. Joy Rahman, P3 Dokumentär, Sveriges Radio, 23 May 2006. ↩

  3. Joy Rahman, Innocents Database of Exonerations. ↩

Built on 3 sources (3 external).

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