'People smuggler' to be extradited
The Australian (Online Breaking News)
From correspondents in Stockholm
10 October 2003

THE Swedish government will extradite a suspected people smuggler wanted by Australia for the drowning deaths of hundreds of asylum seekers two years ago, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said today.

"A decision has been made, but it must be signed also by Sweden's justice minister before it's official," Tobias Nilsson told The Associated Press.

The decision to extradite Iraqi Khaleed Shnayf Daoed to Australia was made after a district court and Sweden's Supreme Court ruled Australia's request was valid.

Daoed was living in Sandviken, 225 kilometres northwest of Stockholm, when he was arrested in May at the request of the Australian government, which has an extradition treaty with Sweden.

Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison said Daoed and another suspected smuggler, Abu Quassey of Egypt, organised an overcrowded boat of 421 asylum seekers that sank en route to Australia from Indonesia in October 2001.

An estimated 374 people, mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq, drowned.

If convicted of smuggling charges in Australia, each man could be sentenced to as long as 20 years in prison

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