Iranian national sentenced to a year in prison after a shopping trip to Sweden

Border SwedenBorder Sweden.Photo: Norway Today Media

A 31 year old Iranian man who had been expelled from Norway, but would not return to Iran, is in Halden, sentenced to a year in prison after he went on a shopping trip to Sweden.

In March last year, the man, who resides in Oslo, visited Sweden together with a friend to buy food and ‘snus’ tobacco pouches. When he returned across the border into Norway, he was recognized by a police officer who knew he had been expelled’, reported NRK news.

The Iranian man was expelled from Norway in 2012, with permanent ban on entry. He does not have an Iranian passport, and has not wanted help in acquiring this, and therefore could not be forcibly returned to his home country. According to NRK, the man had formerlybeen convicted of very serious crime, but Norway lacks an extradition agreement with Iran.

‘He did not understand that the entry ban applied even to a short trip across the border’, said his defence council, Hans Christian Nygaard Wang.

The court said that the 31-year-old had been guilty of a grossly negligent violation of the entry prohibition and handed down a judgement of one year imprisonment. Two months of the sentence was suspended. The man has, for the past six years, lived with his parents, who have legal residence in Norway. The lawyer said that his client finds it very difficult to be without formal papers.

‘He feels it is like being in prison. He can’t take work, nor apply for funding, and is totally dependent on his parents’, said Wang.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today