unsaveSave
expand-left
full screen The five arrested men. Photo: Tunisian Police
Tunisian police close the lid on the Swedish gang leaders who were arrested in October.
But according to documents Aftonbladet has seen, they are still locked up in a terror ward in Tunis.
– We are in contact with Tunisia and are ready to assist them, says Håkan Wall, head of unit at Noa.
Tunisian documents from mid-January, which Aftonbladet has seen, show that gang members Elias Bäck, 29, rapper Remon “5iftyy” Ghide, 22, and three other men, are still under arrest in Tunisia.
At the moment, it is unclear whether any work is underway to have the five men extradited to Sweden. Tunisia has no extradition agreement with Sweden, and Swedish police refer to the Tunisian judiciary for questions about the investigation.
expand-left
full screen Elias Bäck. Photo: The police
– In this case, they are arrested for crimes in Tunisia and we have no insight into that investigation. We are in contact with Tunisia and are ready to assist the police there, says Håkan Wall, head of unit at the International unit of the police’s National Operative Department.
Furthermore, he says that there is a process if you want to get Swedish criminals extradited to Sweden.
– There are international agreements on extradition and you can send a request about it. Many of the criminals who have been arrested abroad, in whom we are interested, we will follow up as soon as the legal process in the country they are in is finished, says Håkan Wall.
Unclear what is happening
For questions about the men’s current status, the police authority refers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not want to comment on the case further and refers to “consular secrecy”.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is aware that five Swedish citizens, natives of Svealand, were detained in Tunisia at the end of October on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization. The five Swedish citizens are in their 20s and 30s,” writes the Foreign Ministry’s press service.
Lawyer Jonas Granfelt, who represents Elias Bäck in an ongoing case in Sweden, says that he has no information about what is happening in Tunisia.
– I have had no insight into the course of events taking place abroad, he says.
The other men’s lawyers have not wanted to answer questions about this.
expand-left
full screen Remon Ghide, one of the gang leaders arrested in Tunisia. Photo: The police
Belongs to the leadership layer
During the autumn, a bloody gang war took place within the criminal network Foxtrot. On the gang leader Rawa Majid’s side were several tone-setting actors, including Elias Bäck and Remon Ghide, who both belong to the leadership layer within the Bridge network.
In October, some of them, including Elias Bäck and Remon Ghide, had an attention-grabbing live broadcast on Instagram together with the now-murdered gang leader Mustafa “Benzema” Aljiburi, 34.
But shortly after the live broadcast, Bäck and Ghide, together with the three other men, were arrested in Tunisia.
The reason for the arrest has been unclear to some extent, but according to the Tunisian documents that Aftonbladet has seen, the men are being held on suspicion of crimes linked to terror. The suspicions were raised after the police discovered the men’s network connections.
Tunisian police also suspected early on that the men were guilty of international drug trafficking.
The prison they are in now is an institution for terrorist suspects in Tunis. Swedish police are said to have recently requested more information from Tunisia, and received the answer that the men are still imprisoned, according to information to Aftonbladet.
expand-left
full screenRawa Majid. Photo: Police / TT News Agency
Details: Was shadowed before the arrest
The five men were in Tunisia some time before the arrest. A Tunisian source has previously stated that a special unit within the Tunisian police had the group under surveillance immediately after they entered the country.
After a period of scouting, they then attacked the men. They were arrested in a car on their way to the city of Hammamet in October. Two pistols were also found in the car and, after a house search, also narcotics, according to Tunisian police.
Among other things, the police are now investigating how those arrested entered the country with weapons in the car, and what they did there.
In general, the punishments for terrorist crimes are harsh in Tunisia, and a source said that the men are likely to face harsh punishments.
– We take this type of crime very seriously here and they will be detained for a long time now, the source has previously told Aftonbladet.
expand-left
fullscreen The police connect Remon Ghide to both the Bridge Network and Foxtrot. Photo: The police
“Free the boys”
Three of the men in the group, Elias Bäck, Remon Ghide and a 24-year-old man, are believed to have previously belonged to the leadership of Foxtrot. After they were arrested, several people from the network have written about it on social media.
The text “Free the boys” has been shared several times on social media together with pictures of some of the arrested.
Some time after the men were arrested, the intense wave of violence calmed down somewhat in Sweden. One source believes the arrest of the men in Tunisia may have had an impact on that.
– Several of those arrested abroad are people who were behind many of the crimes committed in Sweden, says the source.