STOCKHOLM, July 4, 2012 (AFP)
An Egyptian man deported from Sweden in 2001 in cooperation with US authorities has received permanent residency in the Scandinavian country, where his family lives, authorities said Wednesday.
“I made the decision about a half hour ago that Ahmed Agiza will be given permanent residency in Sweden,” Mikael Ribbenvik, the acting head of the Swedish Migration Board, told AFP early Wednesday afternoon.
Agiza and another Egyptian asylum seeker in Sweden, Mohammad al-Zery, were in December 2001 handed over to US agents due to suspicion they were involved in an extremist organisation linked to the Al-Qaeda network.
They were put on a plane leased by the Pentagon and flown to Egypt, where they say they were tortured.
In Egypt, Zery was freed by an Egyptian military court but Agiza received a 25-year prison sentence for terrorism which was later reduced to 15 years. He was finally released from prison last August.
Stockholm was heavily criticised at home and by UN human rights agencies and other groups for the controversial decision which was taken by a previous Social Democratic government.
According to a survey published this week, Swedes consider the Egypt affair their country’s worst political scandal in the past 20 years.
Sweden has acknowledged it made a mistake and has awarded the pair, who claimed they were also mistreated during their transfer to Cairo, three million kronor ($433,000, 345,000 euros) each in compensation.
Yet it had remained unclear whether Agiza would be allowed to return to Sweden where his wife and children live as Swedish citizens.
The government in Stockholm had ruled in 2009 that he would not be allowed back into the country, but since then the laws have changed and it is now up to the Migration Board to decide on the issue, Ribbenvik explained.
After Agiza applied for residency in October at the Swedish embassy in Cairo, the Swedish security police, Saepo, had been asked to evaluate the matter.
While Ribbenvik would not divulge Saepo’s conclusion, he said he had “the greatest respect for their evaluation,” indicating they had determined Agiza was not a threat.
The Egyptian would be free to come to Sweden once his residency card had been sent to the embassy in Cairo for him to pick up, Ribbenvik said, adding that that was expected to take a few weeks.
“This has been a very long process,” he acknowledged, saying he had spoken to Agiza’s wife, and “I can tell you she was very, very happy.”
