http://www.thelocal.se/20140905/sweden-ejects-eritrea-diplomat
Sweden gives diplomat 48 hours to leave
Published: 05 Sep 2014 11:03 GMT+02:00
Updated: 05 Sep 2014 11:03 GMT+02:00
UPDATED: Sweden has ordered a diplomat from Eritrea’s embassy to leave the
country within the next 48 hours.
“I can confirm that a foreign diplomat has been ordered to leave the
country but I can’t go into the reasons,” foreign ministry spokeswoman
Charlotta Ozaki Macías told the TT news agency.
The ministry has a policy of not revealing the nationality of diplomats
ejected from Sweden.
A number of TT’s sources however were able to independently confirm that
Sweden had given the first secretary at the Eritrean embassy just two days
to leave.
A spokeswoman for the embassy declined to comment when reached by The
Local.
One source, who asked not to be named, told TT: “It’s been in the works for
a long time that an Eritrean diplomat was to be ejected.”
Sweden’s reasons for taking the unusual step are unclear.
Diplomats cannot be prosecuted if they commit a crime but they can be
declared persona not grata and told to leave the country.
Many Swedish-Eritreans accuse the embassy of demanding they pay a
two-percent exile tax. Failure to pay can result in the embassy refusing to
give them ID documents or even harming their families in Eritrea, they say.
The embassy has also faced repeated accusations that it spies on
Swedish-Eritreans who are critical of the country’s dictatorial regime.
In Sweden, the best-known such critic is Dawit Isaak, a Swedish-Eritrean
journalist who has spent 13 years in an Eritrean jail without trial.
Received on Fri Sep 05 2014 - 08:06:12 EDT