Criminal Matters

The Government acts as sole judicial authority pronouncing decisions in about 1 500 criminal matters every year.

These matters concern both national and international penal law. Before the Government takes a decision, the matter is processed at the Ministry of Justice. National criminal matters of this type include:

• abolition (order from the Government that no further measures shall be taken to investigate or prosecute a criminal act),
• assignment of court,
• pardon (remission or reduction of a penal sanction),
• special controls in respect of aliens,
• permission to intervene against a Swedish vessel,
• expulsion, and
• permission to prosecute.

International criminal matters include, for example, extraditions for criminal offences.