What Lund University Did to Umut Özkirimli

BY JULIE WARK

In its treatment of Umut, Lund University, acted as a law unto itself.

1) It denied him a fair workplace investigation and provided “information liable to expose [him] to the contempt of others” (Swedish Criminal Code, Ch. 5) by issuing the report of its “investigation”, an unappealable document which isneither “a punishment or a disciplinary measure”, thus leaving him exposed to a systematic campaign of online harassment and violence while still employed by the university, to the extent that his lawyer had to inform the Swedish Security Service, SÄPO. This non-“punishment or disciplinary measure”, was used by Dinç to get the Turkish state to prosecute Umut, and the university shared related material with third parties, including a Turkish online news platform.

2) Christofer Edling (Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences) and Andréa Björk (Human Resources Manager of this faculty) contributed to the deterioration of Umut’s mental health (to the point of his becoming suicidal), by bullying him and encouraging fellow employees to ostracise him. The so-called “psycho-social investigation” by Margaretha Brundin of OMNIA Utvecklingskonsulter KB was an extrajudicial mock trial, and itself defamatory since it claimed, on the basis of zero evidence, that Umut was “stalking” Dinç —a crime in Sweden—despite several police reports to the contrary.

3) Here are some aspects of this hatchet job: (i) he wasn’t informed about the content and nature of the allegations, so was denied the right to defend himself; (ii) materials weren’t shared with him, his union or legal representatives during or after the investigation; (iii) he was bullied into attending interviews with Brundin without his union representative or lawyer; (iv) the interviews and final meeting weren’t recorded; (v) the evidence he submitted was ignored; (vi) the faculty made no allowance for the circumstances of Luca’s terminal illness, which compromised Umut’s ability to defend himself, mentally as well as physically, for he was commuting between Lund and Barcelona where Luca was receiving treatment; (vii) Brundin didn’t mention the pressure to step down from the FIRE project although Umut formally submitted a copy of the written threat on two separate occasions.

4) Lund University withheld 86 pages of documents considered in the “psycho-social investigation” and denied their existence for over four years. The faculty only sent his lawyers thirteen pages. However, when T24, a Turkish online news platform with 1.7 million followers, published these “non-existent” documents (which included private conversations and messages) in seven articles between 21 October and 12 December 2021, they learned how many pages were involved. When Umut’s lawyer asked Lund University whether it had the missing documents, Björk (email, 28 October 2021), claimed that no such documents existed. Yet, the Turkish public prosecutor’s office stated that, “there is an envelope sent by Lund University to T24.com.tr, and this envelope contains a file which includes material related to the investigation conducted by the university and private conversations” between Umut and Dinç. It also includes an email exchange between Björk and the author of these articles. Finally, in November 2021, Björk admitted to Umut’s lawyer that the university had the files.

The whole piece is here