Stockholm. 'Sweden should be supporting human rights activists with a just cause, not hindering them,' Johansson noted <a target="_blank">(Photo: panoramas)</a>
Stockholm. ‘Sweden should be supporting human rights activists with a just cause, not hindering them,’ Johansson noted (Photo: panoramas)

EU and the World

Sweden declines safe passage to Magnitsky campaigner

By Andrew Rettman,
Brussels
,

Sweden has declined to guarantee the safety of a campaigner for EU sanctions on Russian officials despite Russian threats.

Bill Browder, a London-based businessman who is calling for EU countries to blacklist Russian officials suspected of fraud and conspiracy to murder, asked the Swedish government to promise him “safe passage” back in June.

He did it in order to speak at a Swedish parliament hearing in the context of Russian threats to have him arrested, extradited and jailed.

But a senior official in the Swedish justice ministry, Martin Valfridsson, in a letter in June and in a second letter on 23 September said No, leading Browder to cancel his trip.

Valfridsson hinted that Sweden would not help Russia to get its hands on Browder.

He spoke of the “appalling … lack of respect for human rights and rule of law in the Russian Federation.”

He also said Sweden “takes due note” of a decision by Interpol, the international police body based in Lyon, France, not to honour Russia’s request for a Browder arrest notice because it was made for “political” motives.

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Stockholm. 'Sweden should be supporting human rights activists with a just cause, not hindering them,' Johansson noted (Photo: panoramas)

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.