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Swedish officials meet suspects in Pakistan terror probe

TT/Charlotte Webb
TT/Charlotte Webb - [email protected]
Swedish officials meet suspects in Pakistan terror probe

Swedish embassy officials have now met with the four Swedish terror suspects currently imprisoned in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Utrikesdepartementet) said on Wednesday.

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Given their present circumstances, the group is said to be doing well.

The four Swedes – Mehdi Ghezali,a former inmate of Guantánamo Bay, 28-year-old Munir Awad, his 19-year-old girlfriend Safia Benaouda, and their two and half-year-old boy – were arrested on August 28th.

According to the foreign ministry spokesperson Karin Nylund, the meetings were conducted collectively and individually. The consulate will now continue its assignment in accordance with established protocol, however, Nylund was unable to provide concrete details about what will happen next.

“We will remain in contact with the detainees to the extent that they want and try to help if needed,” she said.

The Swedish prisoners were part of a group of foreigners thought by Pakistani police to be travelling in the company of a terror suspect.

The man's alleged mission was to bring the foreigners to the lawless region of northern Waziristan to meet an Zahir Noor, an individual suspected of being a Taliban leader.

The group was arrested on the border of the North-western province, a region heavily targeted in the ongoing civil war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The group was arrested in a forbidden zone containing nuclear facilities, and is suspected of collaborating with terrorists.

The prisoners insist that they were on their way to a harmless religious gathering.

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