Spår by Lena Sundström

This is a true story about a big conspiracy that reached world wide. In 2004, a Swedish tv-program called ”Kalla Fakta” revealed that two men had been arrested and deported to Egypt in 2001, where they were tortured. They were suspected for having ties to al-Qaida. There were no evidence. No trial. It was viewed with the outmost confidentiality and secrecy and no one in Sweden outside the government and Säpo, the security police, new about what was really going on. It was not an deportation. It was an outright abduction.

Three years later, three Swedish journalists began to investigate the ”deportation” of the two men. In 2001, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed Alzery were arrested and deported. When their judicial representatives were informed, they had already arrived in Kairo. According to a ”human rights”-agreement between Sweden and Egypt they were not to be tortured. The problem was that the Swedish government never really investigated how they were being treated. They only inverviewed them in the company of prison guards and the Chief inspector. If they talked, they would be punished, and the prison guards heard every word they spoke. Therefor, little information about their true treatment escaped the prison walls.

The journalists travelled around the world, interviewed people involved and mapped out mysterious planes routes. The story unfolds and the truth, now well known, turned out to be a big conspiracy where even the CIA was involved. Sweden and 54 other countries let an American intelligence service operate on their soil, kidnap innocent people based on suspicions that came from obscure information, and then leave them to torture.

”Spår” has received good reviews, and is considered an important journalistic achievement. With this book Lena Sundström criticizes the government’s ignorant and non-caring approach. It also shows how difficult and wearing it is to fight for a story that is extremely important, but difficult to explain to people and where it’s almost impossible to bring the people responsible to justice.