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WAR CRIMES

Swedish citizen jailed in Serbia released

The Swedish citizen remanded into custody in Serbia last week suspected of war crimes has been released, according to information from the foreign ministry.

Published: 21 July 2011 17:09 CEST

“He is leaving the country,” said head of informations at the ministry, Anders Jörle, to news agency TT on Thursday afternoon.

The Swedish embassy in Belgrade had been told on Thursday that the preliminary investigation against the man would be dropped.

The man, who is in his mid-forties and resides in the Gothenburg-area, was travelling to Kosovo with his family where they were due to go on holiday, when he was taken into custody by border police between Hungary and Serbia last weekend.

At the time, the foreign ministry confirmed to The Local that they had been informed he was suspected of war crimes in Kosovo in the late 1990’s.

But according to news agency TT, the man’s Belgrade-based lawyer said that he had been in Sweden at the time that the crimes allegedly were committed and that the police arrested the wrong person.

Serbian authorities questioned the man on Wednesday and it was after this hearing that the judge decided to release him.

The ministry knows very little about the circumstances around the decision.

“He hasn’t been released yet and we don’t know exactly when it will happen,” Åkesson Lindblom told TT.

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DATA

Austria’s Foreign Ministry hit by ‘serious cyber attack’

Austria's foreign ministry is facing a "serious cyber attack", it said late on Saturday, warning another country could be responsible.

Published: 5 January 2020 07:44 CET
Austria's Foreign Ministry hit by 'serious cyber attack'
The Foreign Ministry building on Minoritenplatz, Vienna, back in 2006. Photo: Gryffindor/Wikimedia Commons
“Due to the gravity and nature of the attack, it cannot be excluded that it is a targeted attack by a state actor,” it said in a statement with the interior ministry shortly before 11.00 pm, adding that the attack was ongoing.
   
“In the past, other European countries have been the target of similar attacks,” it continued.
   
Immediate measures had been taken and a “coordination committee” set up, it said, without elaborating.
 
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The attack came as Austria's Greens on Saturday gave the go-ahead to a coalition with the country's conservatives at a party congress in Salzburg, removing the last obstacle to the unprecedented alliance.
   
The German government's IT network in 2018 was hit by a cyberattack.
   
Last year the EU adopted powers to punish those outside the bloc who launch cyberattacks that cripple hospitals and banks, sway elections and steal company secrets or funds.