The Afghan man a Swedish student prevented from being deported by stalling a plane served jail time for assault in Sweden.
The Afghan man’s asylum application was rejected, too. But Elin Ersson, a 22-year-old student at Gothenburg University in Sweden, was labeled a “hero” by Newsweek, and The Washington Post called it a “dramatic act of civil disobedience” for stalling a plane set to deport the Afghan man for two hours on July 24. She successfully prevented authorities from deporting the man that day.
Authorities confirmed to Fox News that the 52-year-old Afghan man served time in a Swedish prison for assault, Fox reported Tuesday.
A Finnish paper, Helsingin Sanomat, reported the Afghan man had committed assault. Although the man will still be deported, the date of the deportation is unknown, Sanomat reported July 25.
Ersson stalled the plane for two hours and recorded a 14 minute-long video near the end. In the video she addresses the fact that planes cannot take off if a passenger is standing, which she was — refusing to sit down until the Afghan man got off the plane.
“I’m trying to change my country’s rules. I don’t like them. It’s not right to send people to hell,” Ersson said.
“Sit down. We want to go home,” frustrated passengers can be heard saying to Ersson. Others applauded her and told her they agreed with what she was doing. (RELATED: Swedish Student Attempts To Stop Man’s Deportation ‘To Hell’)
Ersson could possibly face a hefty fine and even jail time for her actions, according to the Swedish Aviation Act.
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