Hostage (3 page)

Fredrika couldn’t help reflecting on the way they were seated at the table: the Justice Department on one side, Säpo on the other. All the representatives from Säpo had
introduced themselves with some kind of title underlining their authority: head of department, head of analysis, and Eden Lundell, head of the counter-terrorism unit. She smelled of cigarette
smoke; she must be around six feet tall, and her hair was a shade of honey blonde that Fredrika refused to believe was her natural colour. The smell of smoke was surprising; Eden looked too fresh
to be a smoker.

‘Let’s make a start,’ the Minister said. ‘We’ve got half an hour.’

The head of analysis placed a laptop on the table and started it up. Eden reached over and attached the computer to a cable.

‘Could you switch on the projector?’ she said to Fredrika.

Her voice was husky, and she spoke with an accent that Fredrika couldn’t quite place. She had long, slender fingers with short, unvarnished nails. If she had let them grow and painted them
red, she could have picked up any man she wanted in a bar. Fredrika noticed a ring on Eden’s left hand. She was either married or engaged. That was just as much of a surprise as the cigarette
smoke.

‘Of course,’ Fredrika said, starting up the projector on the ceiling with two clicks.

The head of analysis began his presentation. The first image appeared on the screen. Blue background, Säpo’s logo on the right. Small white dots in different formations. The heading
was straightforward: T
HE
C
ASE OF
Z
AKARIA
K
HELIFI
.

Next image. B
ACKGROUND
.

Eden took over.

‘As you all know, Zakaria Khelifi was the subject of a case in which the court ruled last week. The prosecutor was aiming for a conviction on the grounds of preparing to commit an act of
terrorism, but Khelifi was acquitted and released.’

The head of department, who was sitting next to Eden and was obviously her boss, coughed discreetly. Eden went on, ‘However, in the case involving Khelifi, we did manage to secure
convictions on the same charge for two other North African nationals. We were able to prove that they had spent the months before their arrest preparing a major attack which was to be directed at
the Swedish parliament. We found an explosive device that was virtually complete, and the means to make at least two more. We believe that the attack was to be carried out during the key debate on
immigration and integration, which has been talked about for such a long time but has not yet taken place.’

‘Tomorrow,’ the Minister said. ‘It’s scheduled for tomorrow morning.’

Fredrika went cold all over whenever the immigration-and-integration debate was mentioned. It was something that no one really wanted, apart from those who were racists. Had the debate been the
target of the two men who had just been convicted? If that was the case, then they must have been ready and waiting for the most perfect and most spectacular opportunity to strike, because the
debate had only been under discussion for a few weeks.

‘We think the two men were acting alone. All of our intelligence points in that direction, and we see no reason to revise that assessment. Therefore, we have not raised the question of
increased security in the parliament building; that includes tomorrow’s debate. Apart from what had been planned already, of course. We have liaised with our colleagues in the police, and
they have put rigorous security measures in place in order to ensure that the debate can proceed peacefully.’

Of course, Fredrika thought. Even when you were using the fabric of democracy in order to try to abolish it, you had the support of the forces of law and order.

The head of department interrupted Eden’s presentation.

‘The successful outcome in court with regard to the two men was very welcome, as far as we are concerned. It was important for Säpo to be able to avert a terrorist attack. We are told
all too often that we do too little or too much, too early or too late.’

Fredrika understood what he was talking about. When Säpo took a case to court but failed to secure a conviction, they were often heavily criticised, particularly in those instances when an
arrest didn’t even lead to prosecution. She had often reflected on the delicate balancing act the Swedish security services had to maintain, and she had wondered whether she herself would
have been able to carry out such a thankless task.

Then came Drottninggatan, and the wind changed. Those same journalists who had often claimed that the security services sometimes overstepped the mark now thought that far too little was being
done. The man who blew himself up on Drottninggatan had been on Facebook, for God’s sake, so why hadn’t Säpo known about him?

Who wants a society where Säpo monitors everyone on Facebook? Fredrika had asked herself. Quite a lot of people, apparently.

Eden carried on talking. Fredrika wondered what the head of analysis was there for. To carry the laptop around, perhaps?

‘The two perpetrators who were convicted last week were acting alone, but we have identified several collaborators close to them,’ Eden said. ‘Zakaria Khelifi is one of those
collaborators.’

She pointed to the picture of Zakaria on the screen.

‘He was the only one on whom we had sufficient evidence for an arrest and prosecution.’

The Minister for Justice tilted his head to one side.

‘I think we should regard it as a positive point that it takes a considerable amount of evidence to secure a conviction, in other crimes as well as terrorism.’

‘Of course.’

Silence.

‘Zakaria Khelifi,’ Eden said. ‘That’s why we’re here.’

Everyone was listening.

‘Z
akaria Khelifi came to Sweden from Algeria in 2008. He was an asylum seeker, and claimed that he was being persecuted by a notorious family
because he had been seeing the daughter of the family, and had happened to get her pregnant before they married. According to Zakaria, his wife had been murdered by her own relatives.

‘During the spring, we received several indications suggesting that further groups were planning terrorist attacks on targets in Sweden, and that these attacks were connected with similar
cases in other European countries. We felt that it was possible to take this information seriously in only one of the Swedish cases.’

New image: three small photographs of men whom Fredrika recognised from the media – the two men who had been convicted in court, and Zakaria Khelifi who had been acquitted.

‘To begin with, there was no sign of Zakaria Khelifi in our investigation, but then he started to be seen more and more often in the company of the main suspects. On one occasion, thanks
to telephone surveillance, we heard one of the men say, “You can go and pick up the item we talked about yesterday,” at which point, Khelifi went and collected a package containing
substances that we were later able to establish were part of the explosive device constructed by the main suspects.’

‘Zakaria Khelifi said in court that he didn’t know what the package contained,’ the Secretary of State added.

‘Indeed he did, but, in the surveillance footage, he seemed very nervous when he went into the shop to collect it. He looked around several times while he was carrying it to his car, and
he was dripping with sweat by the time he got in and drove away. We should also mention that, under interrogation, one of the main suspects named Khelifi as one of their collaborators.’

‘A statement which Ellis later retracted, I believe?’ the Minister for Justice said.

‘Yes, and that surprised us. Before the trial began, he had been very clear in his description of Khelifi’s role, insisting that Khelifi had been a great help. We have no idea why
Ellis backtracked when the prosecutor questioned him, to be honest. We’ve tried to find out whether he was threatened in some way, but he refuses to answer our questions. He just keeps saying
that he mixed up different names and different people and, unfortunately, said the wrong thing. But none of us believes that. Ellis was telling the truth during the interrogation, and he lied in
court.’

The Minister listened in silence as Eden carried on talking.

‘It turns out that this wasn’t the first time Khelifi had been associated with individuals suspected of terrorist crimes. We have subsequently discovered that he came up during a
preliminary investigation back in 2009, the year he was given a residence permit. We were following up on a number of people that we suspected of financing terrorist activity overseas but,
unfortunately, we had to drop the case as we were unable to prove that a crime had been committed.’

New image.

Fredrika and the others looked at it attentively.

‘We found Khelifi’s contact details through secret phone surveillance – mapping phone traffic. There were several numbers that we were unable to identify, but one of them later
turned out to belong to Khelifi. We then noticed that Khelifi’s number
also
cropped up in connection with another operation that we had launched after the terrorist threats in France
earlier this year.’

The Minister for Justice looked troubled. ‘He was involved in those as well?’

‘We don’t know for sure. But we do know that before the attack, he had been in contact with one of the perpetrators who was convicted in the French courts last spring. Although, at
that time, we had yet to realise who the phone number belonged to, as I said.’

Fredrika was curious. Phone tapping and surveillance could take an investigation a long way; she had seen it happen in virtually every case she had been involved in during her time with the
police. You just had to work out how everything hung together, which wasn’t always easy.

‘What did Zakaria Khelifi say when you asked about his phone contacts?’ she asked. ‘The ones linked to previous investigations?’

‘He said the phone belonged to someone else at the time,’ Eden replied. ‘He said he only bought it in February or March 2011.’

‘Can you disprove that?’ the Secretary of State asked.

‘No, but we don’t need to. He couldn’t tell us exactly when he bought the phone, or who from, or how much he paid. It was obviously something he came up with after the
event.’

‘I see,’ said the Minister for Justice, who was keen to move on. ‘So, Zakaria Khelifi was acquitted in court. And now you want us to revoke his residence permit?’

‘Yes. In view of the facts we have presented here today, we are asking you to revoke Zakaria Khelifi’s permanent residence permit so that he can be taken into custody and sent home
to Algeria. He has cropped up in three preliminary investigations and operations, he was named by Ellis during interrogation, and he obviously helped the two perpetrators with their
preparations.’

The Minister for Justice leaned back in his chair.

‘Are there any obstacles to implementing this course of action, or is it possible for him to go home?’

‘According to the Immigration Court of Appeal, there is no reason why he can’t be deported. The Algerian authorities have not been involved in our work, and they have no reason to
seek him out. He is therefore not at risk of torture or the death penalty.’

The Secretary of State joined in the discussion. ‘And what about the reasons why he was given permission to stay here in the first place?’

‘No longer applicable,’ Eden said. ‘The father and brother of his ex-wife died in a road-traffic accident some time ago. We believe that the remaining family members are no
longer interested in punishing him.’

Fredrika didn’t say a word. This was a whole new world to her.

‘How does this guy make a living?’ the Minister wanted to know.

‘He’s worked as a youth leader.’

Fredrika remembered how he had been portrayed in the media: the nice guy who worked with young people and had difficulty finding a way into Swedish society. Zakaria Khelifi had learned to speak
fluent Swedish, and was in many ways an excellent role model. A youth leader who was helping terrorists at the same time. Fredrika found it difficult to reconcile these two contradictory
images.

The legs of the Minister’s chair scraped against the parquet floor as he moved.

‘And what is this going to look like in the media?’ he said. ‘Zakaria Khelifi has just been acquitted on two separate counts in court, and yet both Säpo and the government
decide to send him home.’

‘What’s the alternative?’ Eden asked. ‘Let him stay here? Keep him under surveillance? Risk a situation where he becomes an icon for young people in the suburbs with an
immigrant background? An icon who could inspire others to join the armed struggle? We can do that, of course. But in that case, both the government and Säpo will be guilty of dereliction of
duty, because it is our responsibility to ensure that those who could constitute a security threat do not have the opportunity to establish themselves in this country.’

She shook her head and continued: ‘We can’t risk that kind of domino effect; we have to be clear and make an example of Khelifi. And even if the odd journalist writes a negative
article, the message to those who seek to join people like Zakaria Khelifi will be crystal clear: you don’t fuck with Swedish democracy.’

The Minister for Justice appeared to be deep in thought, and Fredrika wondered what Eden’s background was. Her rhetoric was not Swedish, and it looked as if her head of department was
embarrassed by the way she had spoken.

Nobody said anything, and suddenly a brief ringtone sliced through the silence.

‘Sorry, I forgot to switch it off,’ Eden said, taking her mobile out of her pocket.

Eden’s colleagues were staring at her. Everyone was expected to turn off their phone.

But Eden didn’t seem to care what anyone thought. Her attention was focused on the phone in her hand; she read the message she had just received, then said:

‘Apparently, there have been a number of bomb threats against targets in Stockholm. One of those targets is Rosenbad.’

Less than a minute later, the meeting was over, and Säpo had disappeared from the room as if by magic.