”They arrested me at a road block”
Publicerad 2014-07-22
A 64 year old swedish business man is being held by insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
Aftonbladet got in touch with him through the rebel leader Igor Bezler, who agreed to put him on the phone.
“They arrested me at a road block. Then they took me with them to a locality, threatening me with a gun”, the swedish man says to Aftonbladet.
The kidnapping took place 12 days ago. The swedish man was captured near a road block close to Prevalsk in the region of Luhansk. He is now being held in Horlivka, a stronghold for the rebels in the area .
The Swedish National Police Board, RPS, confirm that a swedish citizen has been reported missing and might have been abducted.
“Because of security reasons we have no further comments”, says Fredrik Kärrholm at RPS.
The missing man is 64 years old and is working with a company that has tight relations with Russia, according to ukrainian Interior Ministry official Anton Gerasjenko.
“He was arrested after the rebels got suspicious. He was walking around with a map”, Gerasjenko says to Aftonbladet.
Through a russian contact Aftonbladet manage to reach the rebel leader Igor Bezler over the phone late monday.
He is a warlord in the town of Horlivka, who is said to be partly independent from the rebel leadership in both Donetsk and Luhansk republics.
He confirms Gerasjenkos statement.
“It is correct that we have a swedish citizen in custody. He was arrested by cossacks in the area because he was reading a map in the middle of a war zone”, he says.
Then he askes if Aftonbladet would like to talk to the swedish man.
“He is in the room next to me”
The swedish man gets the phone and says he is doing well “under the circumstances”.
“I guess I am being treated okey. There is no danger”
What happened when you got arrested?
“They arrested me at a road block. Then they took me with them to a locality, threatening me with a gun”.
Do you know why you where detained?
“No, I have no idea. I have not gotten any information about why. I guess it is because I have “the wrong passport”. In other words: because I am a westerner”
What was you business in the area?
“I rather not tell you”
Have they managed to communicate with you in any way? With a translator?
“No. I speak a bit of russian, but no – I don't know anything. I try to get some answers why I am here, but they wont tell me anything. I guess I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I have done nothing wrong”.
How many are being held where you are?
“We are four persons. Two ukrainians, one georgian and me. Now they are getting a bit annoyed, I think we have to hang up.”
Igor Bezler gets on the phone again.
“We have nothing more to say. Now we are ending this conversation.”
Earlier on Monday afternoon Igor Bezler confirmed the detention of the swedish citizen to the russian news agency Ria Novosti.
“We don't know yet if he is a military, but we are going to find out. There are information that the ukrainian National Guard use snipers from Sweden. We are investigating this”, Bezler said.
Most likely he is referring to the group of swedish right wing-extremists who are fighting against the rebels in the area. The group made a statement on social media yesterday saying that none of them have been arrested. “It was a civilian”, the statement said.
Igor Bezler is one of the separatists who where tapped after flight MH17 went down in eastern Ukraine. In the conversation, which was made public by the ukrainian intelligence service and are said to have occurred 20 minutes after the crash, Bezler are heard telling a russian intelligence officer that the separatists had shot down a plane.
According to the ukrainian government more then 400 people have been captured in eastern Ukraine in recent time, according to the swedish news agency TT.
“The terrorists keep on kidnapping people, among them foreigners”, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andrej Lysenko said during a press briefing in Kiev.
According to ukrainian Interior Ministry official Anton Gerasjenko, Igor Bezler might have kidnapped the swedish citizen in order to force a prisoner exchange happening.
“He will most certainly soon offer to exchange the swede for some of his terrorists that we have arrested”, Gerasjenko says to TT.
The captured swedish citizen resides in Norway and are working in transport. He is married to an ukrainian woman.
Translation: Martin Nilsson