Shortly after the Swedish government decision in December 2001, a CIA plane left Cairo bound for Stockholm's Bromma airport.
Agiza and Alzery were then handed over to US agents and flown back to Cairo in what was one of several extraordinary renditions carried out by the United States in the early years of the war on terror.
Both men later claimed they were tortured while being held in Egypt, leading many international human rights bodies to criticize Sweden for its role in the forced deportations.
Both men eventually had their deportations overturned and went on to receive damage awards from the Swedish state in 2008.
Could Assange's life now be in danger? His lawyer, Mark Stephens, says the answer is yes. Stephens' assertions came in a 35-page document that was released yesterday. Reports wired.com:
Stephens argued in the document that extraditing Assange could violate the European Convention on Human Rights if the U.S. then tried to extradite him from Sweden or, worse, grab him through an "illegal rendition." The highly-charged reference is to the "extraordinary renditions" that the Central Intelligence Agency performed to illegally nab suspected terrorists and send them to countries overseas where they could be tortured in secret prisons. . . .
A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, is believed to be investigating possible criminal charges against Assange in relation to classified documents that his organization obtained from a source and published. If charges were filed in the U.S., Stephens asserted that Sweden was likely to "bow to US pressure and/or rely naively on diplomatic assurances from the USA that Mr. Assange would not be mistreated."
As for Bodstrom, he has denied that he had any knowledge of how the 2001 deportations were to be carried out. But his involvement in the accusations against Assange, raises this question: Did Bodstrom help concoct a bogus case against Assange in an effort to make sure that WikiLeaks does not reveal the truth about Sweden's ties to the CIA and torture?
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