Nine Swedish no-border activists face more than two years imprisonment in case they will be sentenced for trying to stop the deportation to Eritrea of an asylum seeker. The activists entered the runway of Bromma Airport, Stockholm, during Monday afternoon. The activists from “No Human Being Is Illegal” had received information that the 23-year-old Eritrean was to be deported on a chartered airplane. They cut a hole in the fence and rushed in, stopping air traffic between 4.20 and 4.35 pm local time, according to The Local, an English-language news site.

Now they are suspected of airport sabotage, according to a spokesperson for the police.

“We will try to take the responsibility that the government won’t take in this case,” said one activist to the news site Yelah.net one hour before the direct action was undertaken.

– Eritrea is a dictatorship. We fear that he will be tortured and possibly even killed.

The Swedish government has twice before tried to deport the young man, whose name is not being disclosed for security reasons.

During the first attempt, the pilot refused to take off. Eritrean border police ruined the second attempt to deport him since they would not accept the papers issued for him by the Swedish police.

The Swedish government’s attempts to deport him have thus far cost several tens of thousands of US dollars.

On Tuesday evening, there will be a first protest meeting held in Stockholm in support for the 23-year-old and for the nine incarcerated human rights activists.

Source in English:
http://www.thelocal.se/11138/20080416/