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CSN

Suicide bomber lived off Swedish student aid

Stockholm suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab received more money from the Swedish state than from his terrorist financiers, including a 54,000-kronor ($8,550) payout made after he bled to death in his failed terror bid.

Suicide bomber lived off Swedish student aid

All told, Abdulwahab received nearly 750,000 kronor ($119,000) from the Swedish National Board for Student Aid (Centrala studiestödsnämnden, CSN), the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reports.

The figure is more than ten times the estimated $8,000 sum cited in a Scottish court’s conviction last year of Nesserdine Menni, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for funding Abdulwahab’s December 2010 attack in Stockholm.

The revelations come from Swedish author Mats Ekman, the author of a book on Iraqi intelligence activities in Sweden during Saddam Hussein’s rule of Iraq.

Ekman examined all of Abdulwahab’s student aid applications and payments, and discovered the Stockholm suicide bomber frequently sent certificates to CSN verifying his coursework.

“I would like to thank CSN and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,” Abdulwahab wrote at the end of one of his letters to the agency.

According to Ekman’s research, Abdulwahab first applied for student aid in the late 1990s and used the money he received from the Swedish agency to fund his studies in Luton, England, the place where the Iraqi-born Swede is believed to have became inspired by militant Islamism.

It remains unclear what happened to the 54,000 kronor sent by CSN to Abdulwahab two days after he died in the December 2012 suicide bomb attack in a busy shopping district in central Stockholm.

After Abdulwahab’s death, CSN subsequently wrote off 670,000 kronor of his student loan debt.

Prosecutor Agnetha Hilding Qvarnström continues to investigate the suicide bomb attack but refused to speculate on how much money Abdulwahab may have spent or whether Swedish student aid money may have been used to buy materials used in the bomb attack.

Hilding Qvarnström is expected to present her investigation some time in the spring.

The revelations may also lead to changes in how CSN deals with outstanding debts when someone dies with outstanding dues.

“This has been a real eye-opener for us,” CSN spokesman Klas Elfving told DN, adding that the payment was authorized on December 9th, prior to Abdulwahab’s death.

The Local/dl

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CSN

Students to keep paying off debt beyond 67

The Swedish government has proposed scrapping the 25-year span for repaying student loans, by suggesting those who attend higher education should keep paying the money back well into retirement.

Students to keep paying off debt beyond 67

At present some 200,000 students have their student loan written off every year when they reach the age of 67. However, proposals in the government's spring government bill are set to increase the financial burden on students. 

Along with the idea of extending the debt into old age, the government are going to more than double the fee when students get a late payment reminder.

It is presently 250 kronor ($38) but will go up to 450 kronor if the reform is passed. The move follows hot on the heels of a government u-turn to cut student grant by 300 kronor a month.

Finance minister Anders Borg has justified the moves by saying that all reforms must be paid for krona by krona.

The Swedish National Union of Students (Sveriges förenade studentkårer) criticized the government proposals, arguing that the level of debt already continues to increase.

"We are strongly opposed to this debt and collection politics which is obviously a strategy to pay for higher education. The past few years the debt burden has increased every year," chairman Erik Arroy told the TT news agency. 

He added; "It's fair that you repay your loans. However, we don't find it reasonable that you are expected to put yourself in debt as much as they assume people will do today." 
 
Meanwhile the Swedish student grant agency (CSN) said the proposed reform will mean they are dealing with a new, older, range of people in the future. 
 
"We will have a new group to work with and it's pensioners," Boel Magnusson of CSN told TT. 
 
She added that the full impact on CSN will not be known until an analysis on the proposal has been carried out. 
 
The Local/pr
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