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Swedes held prisoner in Iraq risk execution in Iran
At least 100 Swedish citizens or residents of Iranian descent, who have been held prisoner near Baghdad for nearly a year, risk extradition to Iran where they could be executed, Swedish media reported on Wednesday.
| And why would Iran execute peaceful fun-loving Swedes, pray tell? |
The Swedes are among approximately 4,000 fighters in the People's Mujahedin, an Iraq-based Iranian opposition movement, who have been held prisoner since last spring at Camp Ashraf, which is located north-west of the Iraqi capital.
| Oh, that's why. They are Iranian members of a terrorist group who happen to have Swedish passports (among others). |
| You didn't think they were named "Sven" or "Olaf," did you? |
The United States decided last December that members of the opposition group would be expelled from Iraq, and although it decided that they should not be sent to Iran, Swedish activists and lawyers are worried that they will end up there. "These people risk ending up in Iran ... and then it is probable that torture and death sentences await them," Kenneth Lewis, a Swedish lawyer and the spokesman for Lawyers Without Borders, told Dagens Nyheter, adding that most of the Swedes being held in the camp were women.
| I don't think we are talking about the Swedish bikini team here. |
| If we don't ship them to Iran, but they somehow end up there anyway, what's the beef? Are we supposed to take them to Samoa and nail their feet to the floor? |
| There's a disputed island in the Kennedy Channel, about 80 degrees N, between Greenland and Canada that might be available. |
Lewis, who recently returned from a trip to the camp, where he interviewed 80 Mujahedin fighters with Swedish ties, has agreed to press the Swedish government to protect their rights. The Swedish foreign ministry, which could not confirm how many people with ties to Sweden are being held in the camp, said the US had asked it to accept all the Mujahedin fighters with legal ties to the Scandinavian country. "The US has been in contact with us to see if Sweden can take in these people," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Haakonsson told AFP.
| I'd think long and hard about this. Then I'd say no. |
Posted by: Steve 2004-04-07 |
