The Mother of All Malicious Prosecution Lawsuits?

I don’t know much about Swedish law but under American law, if people bring criminal charges that are proven to be false, the defendant can later sue for malicious prosecution. Private citizens have no immunity from such suits either. Also under American law, even public officials, except judges and prosecutors acting as prosecutors, can be sued for violating the constitutional rights of a defendant. Most relevant here would be a suit for false arrest. Although a judicial warrant can confer some immunity, if false statements are used to procure it, the officers can be held liable.

Knowing what I do about the Julian Assange case, this could be turn out to be the mother of all malicious prosecution lawsuits.

From a libertarian view, suits for malicious prosecution are a good deterrent to people using the police to settle a score with their enemies simply because there is no (initial) financial cost of doing so.

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8:17 am on December 10, 2010