Update 31 August 2023: Professor Åke Lundqvist has been acquitted by the district court and the judgement has become final. See the news item "Professor acquitted by district court" from 3 July 2023.

“The fact that a professor from Uppsala University is being prosecuted is a serious matter. However, he is yet to be convicted,” says deputy vice-rector Eva Tiensuu Janson. We must now wait while the legal system addresses the case. The fact that this case is being tried is something positive, especially for preserving the public’s confidence in research.

The current case applies to one of two different matters. The prosecutor has chosen to drop the investigation for the other case involving a few samples being taken from patients infected with COVID-19.

“We are yet to see the prosecutor’s reasoning behind why this preliminary investigation was dropped. We will need to see the case documents before we can comment on if and how the University needs to address the issue further,” she continues.