Police vehicles block a road leading to Copenhagen in October 2018, in response to an Iranian plot uncovered by Danish intelligence. EPA
Police vehicles block a road leading to Copenhagen in October 2018, in response to an Iranian plot uncovered by Danish intelligence. EPA
Police vehicles block a road leading to Copenhagen in October 2018, in response to an Iranian plot uncovered by Danish intelligence. EPA
Police vehicles block a road leading to Copenhagen in October 2018, in response to an Iranian plot uncovered by Danish intelligence. EPA

Journalist accused of spying for Iran


Paul Peachey
  • English
  • Arabic

An Iraqi-Swedish journalist will stand trial later this month accused of spying on separatist Iranian exiles in three European countries.

Raghdan Al-Hraishawi, 46, is accused of using his role at an Arabic newspaper as a cpver to infiltrate online forums run by members of the Ahvaz community to secure the names and addresses of opposition figures, according to Swedish prosecutors.

The Ahvaz opposition group, whose leaders have previously been targeted by Iranian assassins, wants a separate state for ethnic Arabs in Iran’s south-west oil-rich province of Khuzestan. It is considered a terrorist group by Tehran.

Mr Al-Hraishawi is said to have travelled to conferences and demonstrations to film delegates in Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands and then passed the information back to Iranian intelligence services over four years.

He also travelled to Tehran for face-to-face meetings with his alleged handlers, said senior public prosecutor Hans-Jörgen Hanström in a statement.

Mr Al-Hraishawi was arrested in March. He worked as a reporter for Euro Times, a Sweden-based publication launched in 2016 and distributed within the EU, according to its website. He denies the charges against him.

Prosecutors have compiled a 1,700-page dossier against him and accuse him of illegal intelligence gathering from April 2015 to February 2019.

If found guilty at a nine-day trial that starts later this month, he could face a jail term of three to four years, said his solicitor Hanna Lindblom. “He denies having any contacts with the Iranians,” she said. “There has been no contact at all.”

Mr Hanström claims that Mr Al-Hraishawi photographed car registration plates and obtained details of online login passwords during visits to activists’ homes.

Unrest in the Iranian province of Khuzestan goes back to the 1920s when an uprising was crushed by the Shah of Iran. Scandinavia has been a proxy battlefield in the dispute between Arab nationalists and the Iranian state with some of its leaders living in exile there.

Mr Al-Hraishawi had previously been reported to have made several trips to a newspaper office in the Netherlands that has close links to the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), which has launched attacks on Iranian targets since 2005.

Twenty-five people were killed in September 2018 when gunmen attacked a military parade in the city of Ahvaz. Iran’s leaders blamed the attack on “terrorists recruited, trained, armed and paid” by a foreign regime.

Shortly after the attack, Denmark’s intelligence services released details of a planned Iranian-inspired assassination plot against three Ahvaz leaders living in the country. Police shut down the capital Copenhagen to thwart the planned attack.

The Denmark plot was the latest incident that came to light after Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, suggested that Iran conducted “covert assassination operations in the heart of Europe”.

The ASMLA group split in 2015 with one half the group based in Denmark and the other half in the Netherlands.

The founder of the group, Ahmad Mola Nissi, was shot dead in the Netherlands in late 2017. The Dutch government said earlier this year that it had “strong indications” that Iran was involved in the killing.

The French authorities have also blamed Iran’s intelligence services for a plot to bomb a rally of Iranian opposition groups in Paris in June last year. German police arrested an Iranian diplomat based in Austria and he has been extradited to stand trial in Belgium.

Forced%20Deportations
%3Cp%3EWhile%20the%20Lebanese%20government%20has%20deported%20a%20number%20of%20refugees%20back%20to%20Syria%20since%202011%2C%20the%20latest%20round%20is%20the%20first%20en-mass%20campaign%20of%20its%20kind%2C%20say%20the%20Access%20Center%20for%20Human%20Rights%2C%20a%20non-governmental%20organization%20which%20monitors%20the%20conditions%20of%20Syrian%20refugees%20in%20Lebanon.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%9CIn%20the%20past%2C%20the%20Lebanese%20General%20Security%20was%20responsible%20for%20the%20forced%20deportation%20operations%20of%20refugees%2C%20after%20forcing%20them%20to%20sign%20papers%20stating%20that%20they%20wished%20to%20return%20to%20Syria%20of%20their%20own%20free%20will.%20Now%2C%20the%20Lebanese%20army%2C%20specifically%20military%20intelligence%2C%20is%20responsible%20for%20the%20security%20operation%2C%E2%80%9D%20said%20Mohammad%20Hasan%2C%20head%20of%20ACHR.%3Cbr%3EIn%20just%20the%20first%20four%20months%20of%202023%20the%20number%20of%20forced%20deportations%20is%20nearly%20double%20that%20of%20the%20entirety%20of%202022.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ESince%20the%20beginning%20of%202023%2C%20ACHR%20has%20reported%20407%20forced%20deportations%20%E2%80%93%20200%20of%20which%20occurred%20in%20April%20alone.%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIn%20comparison%2C%20just%20154%20people%20were%20forcfully%20deported%20in%202022.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

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MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League, semi-final result:

Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona

Liverpool win 4-3 on aggregate

Champions Legaue final: June 1, Madrid

The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo

Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic

Power: 242bhp

Torque: 370Nm

Price: Dh136,814

WWE Super ShowDown results

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Finn Balor defeated Andrade to stay WWE Intercontinental Championship

Shane McMahon defeated Roman Reigns

Lars Sullivan won by disqualification against Lucha House Party

Randy Orton beats Triple H

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Mansoor Al Shehail won the 50-man Battle Royal

The Undertaker beat Goldberg

 

The specs: 2017 Lotus Evora Sport 410

Price, base / as tested Dh395,000 / Dh420,000

Engine 3.5L V6

Transmission Six-speed manual

Power 410hp @ 7,000rpm

Torque 420Nm @ 3,500rpm

Fuel economy, combined 9.7L / 100km

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog

Name: Greg Heinricks

From: Alberta, western Canada

Record fish: 56kg sailfish

Member of: International Game Fish Association

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MATCH INFO

Real Madrid 2

Vinicius Junior (71') Mariano (90 2')

Barcelona 0

Rooney's club record

At Everton Appearances: 77; Goals: 17

At Manchester United Appearances: 559; Goals: 253

FFP EXPLAINED

What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.

What the rules dictate? 
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.

What are the penalties? 
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.

PSG's line up

GK: Alphonse Areola (youth academy)

Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)

Midfield - Angel di Maria (€47m); Adrien Rabiot (youth academy); Marco Verratti (€12m)

Forwards - Neymar (€222m); Edinson Cavani (€63m); Kylian Mbappe (initial: loan; to buy: €180m)

Total cost: €440.4m (€620.4m if Mbappe makes permanent move)