December 27-2013
It’s that same old problem back again—confusing Iran and Iraq because there is only a single letter difference in the Latin alphabet. Abbas Hajj Ali told Swedish Radio he came to Sweden 11 years ago from Iran and admits he lied on his papers and said he was from Iraq because he thought it would help him win asylum. When the lie was discovered, he was ordered deported. But Swedish police got mixed up and sent him to Iraq, where he was thrown in jail for three years. Now he’s back in Sweden and says he plans to sue the Swedish police for their costly one-letter goof.