were two Egyptian asylum-seekers who were deported to Egypt from Sweden on December 18, 2001, apparently following a request from the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
[1] The forced repatriation was criticized because of the danger of torture and ill treatment, and because the deportation decision was executed the same day without notifying the lawyers of the asylum seekers.
The two men were arrested on the street, in one case, and in a telephone booth while talking with his lawyer, in the other, and they were driven to the airport within a few hours, and given over to a group of American and Egyptian personnel who flew them out of the country within minutes.
[2] In the meantime, the lawyer who experienced the interrupted conversation called the Swedish foreign office to figure out what was going on, but could not find anyone who could tell.
For example, it appears that the government believed they had obtained a letter from the Egyptian authorities with clear promises of respecting the human rights of the men.
Neither the Egyptian security police nor Swedish Säpo have been able to produce any information pointing to Alzery as a leading member of the same organization.
[6] Human Rights Watch published a harsh criticism of both the deportation from Sweden and the trial in 2004 in Egypt of Ahmed Agiza.
The deportation only became widely known to the general public after the Swedish television network TV4 in its series Kalla fakta (Cold Facts) in May 2004 reported on the deportation under the heading "The broken promise", by the journalists, Sven Bergman, Fredrik Laurin, and Joachim Dyfvermark.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman examined the handling of the case after the decision had been made, and criticised harshly various aspects of the degrading treatment of the subjects at the airport.
In consequence, the Committee did not find "a violation of article 13 of the Covenant for the failure to be allowed to submit reasons against his deportation and have the case reviewed by a competent authority".
[15] In November 2009, the Swedish government on appeal denied the renewed applications for residence in Sweden that had been submitted following the formal overturning of the repatriations in March 2007.
[16][17] In January 2009, it was claimed that the United States had threatened to impose trade barriers on the European Union if the two men were not transferred.