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Madrid court remands Swede on terror charges

Published: 16 Feb 13 08:56 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/46228/20130216/

A 65-year-old Swedish man was on Friday remanded into custody by a Madrid court on suspicion of terror crimes connected to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PPK).

"According to information from the Spanish police, he is suspected of extortion for terrorist purposes," said Catarina Axelsson at the Foreign Ministry's press service.

The Swede and five others were arrested in Spain on Tuesday in a series of coordinated raids which also saw 16 arrested in France.

Those detained are all suspected of belonging to the terrorist-classified Kurdish separatist movement PKK. They are suspected of having coerced other Kurds into paying a so-called "revolution tax".

According to the charges, the collections are intended to have been used to finance the purchase of explosives and weapons for terrorist activities in Turkey.

In the course of the raids, police seized weapons and cash.

According to news agency Europa Press the Madrid court released three of the six arrested in Spain, although they remain under suspicion and are not permitted to leave the country.

The 65-year-old Swede, who is reported to be resident in the south of Sweden, is receiving assistance from the embassy and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The PPK is a Kurdish organization founded in 1984 that fights against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan, as well as for the rights of Kurds in Turkey.

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11:41 February 16, 2013 by johan rebel
Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . . you can call him "Swede" another six dozen times, but that's not going to make him one. His Swedish passport does not make him any more Swedish than my Dutch one makes me Dutch.
17:00 February 16, 2013 by HungarianAmerican1975
The absolute best comment I've heard, Johan. And I fully agree!
17:35 February 16, 2013 by grymagnusson
You can call him whatever you like another six dozen times and that won't mean he is not a Swede. As much as you may like us all to have blond hair and blue eyes, citizenship in Sweden has no ethnic connotations.

The Swedish state confers citizenship, it is not an opinion up for discussion.
18:40 February 16, 2013 by HungarianAmerican1975
Unfortunately this is true! However, intelligent people know that bloodline and ethnic composition defines a European and not handing out passports to just anyone.
20:24 February 16, 2013 by grymagnusson
Are you Hungarian or American, or both?
20:29 February 16, 2013 by cogito
"Swede." Sure.

The rule is: if the headline says "Swede," not. If it says "man," Swede.
20:36 February 16, 2013 by TheLight
This is a bunch of stuffs, the swedes I know cannot do such a thing.
00:21 February 17, 2013 by TheWatchman
@grymagnusson

He is Swedish you say, so if I go to Japan and become a citizen without a drop of Japanese blood I am just as Japanese as the Japanese people who have lived there for thousands of years?
11:54 February 17, 2013 by grymagnusson
Yep - there is no sliding scale on citizenship. You are, or you are not - in Sweden there is no middle ground.

I am Swedish and the only time I "share blood" is when I donate it.
15:48 February 17, 2013 by HungarianAmerican1975
To answer your question, I am of Hungarian blood and ethnicity who lives in America, there is quite a difference between that.

He may be a "Swede" under the country's law but he will never, NEVER possess Viking blood or hertatige!
16:21 February 17, 2013 by Migga
@ grymagnusson

If you have a swedish citizenship and nationality then you are a Swede, but if you don`t have a swedish ethnicity you will never be an ethnic Swede. Is that so upsetting to the political correct? This terrorist will never be an ethnic Swede.
12:06 February 18, 2013 by klubbnika
The man in question is a Swedish national, that is what the article means.

Nobody argued he was an ethnic Swede.
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