STOCKHOLM: An Iraqi Swede was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison on Friday for spying on the Ahwazi community in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe and passing information to Iranian authorities, potentially exposing members of the group to harm.
The Ahwazi are an ethnic Arab minority mostly living in the Iranian province of Khusestan and face persecution and discrimination from authorities there, according to Amnesty International.
Unrest in Khusestan goes back at least 100 years when the local leader rebelled against Reza Shah Pahlavi.
In 2018, the Ahwaz National Resistance, which seeks a separate state in Khuzestan, claimed responsibility for an attack on a parade in the regional capital of Ahvez that killed 25 people. Iran arrested hundreds of Ahwazi Arabs.
“The defendant’s activities and surveillance of Ahwazis may cause a large number of opposition Ahwazis or their relatives persecution, serious injury or death,” Stockholm District court said in a statement. “This intelligence operation has been systematic and has been going on for a long time.”
The 46-year-old man collected personal information about members of the Ahwazi community under the pretense of working for an online publication, the court said.
The man had denied the charges.
The man’s activities included filming conference delegates and demonstrators at Ahwazi events in Sweden and around Europe, photographing number plates and obtaining Internet log-in details of members of the community between 2015 and 2019.
Sweden jails man for spying on Ahwazi community for Iran
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Sweden jails man for spying on Ahwazi community for Iran
- An Iraqi Swede was sentenced for spying on the Ahwazi community across Europe
- He passed information to Iranian authorities, potentially exposing members of the group to harm
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
