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
Thailand frees 18 Cambodian soldiers as ceasefire holds
- The Southeast Asian neighbors agreed on a ceasefire that took effect on Saturday, halting 20 days of fighting that killed at least 101 people and displaced more than half a million
BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH: Thailand on Wednesday released 18 Cambodian soldiers it had detained since July under the renewed ceasefire the two countries agreed on the weekend to end a border conflict, Cambodian and Thai authorities said.
The Southeast Asian neighbors agreed on a ceasefire that took effect at noon (0500 GMT) on Saturday, halting 20 days of fighting that killed at least 101 people and displaced more than half a million on both sides, and included fighter-jet sorties, exchanges of rocket fire and artillery barrages.
The soldiers were due to be returned on Tuesday, but Thailand over alleged breaches of the ceasefire deal, which Cambodia denied.
Cambodian Defense Ministry spokesperson Maly Socheata said the soldiers were handed over at a border checkpoint at 10 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Wednesday after 155 days in Thai custody.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said the soldiers had been treated “in
The border clashes reignited early this month, following the breakdown in a
ceasefire deal
that US President
Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim helped broker to halt a previous round of conflict in July.
