The man was sentenced to eleven years in prison after admitting that he and two others, a Swedish and a British, tried to support the US-stamped organization Al-Shabab. The case against the so-called Djibouti Swedes got a lot of attention in Sweden in 2013 because the US received important material from the Security Police despite the fact that the two men were never prosecuted for any crime in Sweden.
The Swedish brother, who lives in Sweden, tells SVT that the family is devastated and that information has still not been received on how the prison handled the brother’s illness.
– I talked to him last Thursday. Then everything was fine and he was happy. But then he heard from his mother on Friday and wrote: “I have trouble breathing. I hope to get medicine today, ”says the 37-year-old’s brother.
“Jail became a death penalty”
Lompoc Prison north of Los Angeles, is the worst-hit federal prison in the United States, with coronas infection found among nearly 70 percent of inmates. The US Federal Prison Service, BOP, confirms that the 37-year-old is dead but has declined an interview.
During the spring, the family found it difficult to keep in touch with the 37-year-old.
– For four weeks it was total radio silence. Couldn’t make calls, send letters or anything. Afterwards he told me that it was because of the corona virus that they stopped visits and communication, says the brother.
“Not fair”
The 37-year-old had about a year and a half left on his sentence before he was released on conditional release. His US lawyer David Stern has also been reached by death notice.
– It’s incredibly sad. He was sentenced to a number of years in prison, but it turned out to be a death sentence, he says and continues:
– I thought it was a strange case from the beginning, where a Swedish man who had been beaten for Al-Shabab in Ethiopia would be prosecuted for crimes in the United States. That we “pick” a Swedish person who has never been here, and never even considered being in the United States, and prosecuting him here is still unfair to me today. The judge considered it legal, but it is not fair, says David Stern.
Prosecutor Agneta Hilding Qvarnström, who was the one who decided to hand over documents to the United States, has stated in previous interviews that it is difficult to deny material when there is an international request for legal assistance.
Source: svt.se
