28 March 2012
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Sweden: Update:
Parliamentary Ombudsman issues report criticising the role of the Security Police ( (SÄPO) in allowing inhuman treatment and the removal of two men to Egypt
The Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman has issued a report criticising the role of the Security Police (SÄPO) for allowing US agents to strip, search, bound and remove two men to Egypt where they were tortured.
A few days before the men, who were resident in Sweden, were arrested the CIA told SÄPO that they would make available a plane to remove them from the country. This offer was communicated by SÄPO to the government which then decided, on 18 December 2001, to deport the men. That evening the US jet arrived and US agents, in the presence of SÄPO officers, cut the clothes off of the men, searched their bodies, bound their hands and feet then dressed on overalls, with hoods over their head the two men were taken bare foot to the plane where they were strapped to mattresses throughout the flight to Egypt.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman criticised the conduct of SÄPO officers on three counts: 1) that SÄPO officers passively watched while US agents stripped, searched and bound the men; 2) that SÄPO officers lost control of the situation both at the airport and during the journey to Egypt. They allowed the US agents to take control. This constituted a total surrender of their powers on Swedish territory and was contrary to Swedish law; 3) that the treatment of the two men, taken as a whole, constituted inhuman and degrading treatment.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman concluded that SÄPO should have decided to stop the expulsions.
For full background and transcript of TV documentaries see Statewatch reports:
1. Update: Sweden: Expulsions carried out by US agents, men tortured in Egypt (October, 2004)
2. Sweden: Expulsions carried out by US agents, men tortured in Egypt (May, 2004)
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