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In February 2003, contrary to the explicit wishes of the study participants, a court in Gothenburg ordered that confidential psychiatric research records held at the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at Gothenburg University should be handed over to two private individuals. Many of us have been highly distressed by these decisions and the subsequent legal process against Professor Christopher Gillberg and colleagues.
The case has attracted significant media attention for several years. Many people have seen fit in recent years to make public pronouncements on the case, but few have succeeded in doing this on the basis of a correct assessment of what has actually taken place - and why.
Elias Eriksson and Kristoffer Hellstrand, Professors of Pharmacology and Virology respectively at the University of Gothenburg have taken an active interest in the case and are well acquainted with it. Although neither of them belongs to Christopher Gillberg's research group they have remarkably good insight into both the media coverage of the case and how the Swedish authorities have handled the case. In winter 2006 they submitted a document to the Chancellor of Justice describing how an ideologically based media debate, with substantial help from the Church of Scientology, became a witch-hunt against Sweden’s leading expert in the field of child neuropsychiatry. We have published their document on this website. The document is quite detailed - but it will be of great interest for those wishing to know the exact circumstances surrounding the six year long witch-hunt.
The Chancellor of Justice has not yet announced his position on the document. Download here (PDF).
After the document was submitted, the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden upheld the Gothenburg District Court's conditional sentence and fine against Professor Gillberg. The Court of Appeal also upheld the District Court's conviction of Gothenburg's University's former Principal, Gunnar Svedberg.
Professor Gillberg applied in spring 2006 for leave to appeal against the judgements in the Swedish Supreme Court, but his application was rejected by the court without any grounds for the rejection being given. A further appeal is about to be submitted to the EC Court of Justice.