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Sweden Returns Passport To Pirate Bay Co-Founder
An anonymous reader writes "In August, Piratebay co-founder Fredrik Neij had his Swedish passport revoked by the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok. After an appeal the revocation was dismissed [Saturday], with a ruling that the embassy cannot take away his passport. The full ruling can be read here."
For those not reading Swedish, the reason of dismissing the revocation is (as far as I understand it) simply that as a citizen you are allowed to know the reason for a decision (with some few exceptions), which wasn't done in this case. So the dismissal is, in itself, not saying that the decision was wrong, only that it was formally incorrect.
You can read the law here.
http://www.notisum.se/rnp/sls/lag/19860223.HTM (google translate needed).
And the relevant section is (in my sloppy translation):
20 Ett beslut varigenom en myndighet avgör ett ärende skall innehålla de skäl som har bestämt utgången, om ärendet avser myndighetsutövning mot någon enskild. Skälen får dock utelämnas helt eller delvis
20 A decision by which an agency decides a case must contain the reasons which determined the outcome, if the matter concerns public authority against any individual. The reasons may be omitted completely or partially
1. if the decision is not against any party or if for any other reason it is obviously unnecessary to disclose the reasons,
2 if the decision relates to appointments, admission to voluntary training, grading, allocation of research grants or something comparable,
3 if it is necessary in the interests of national security, protection of an individual's personal or financial circumstances or any comparable circumstance,
4 if the matter is so urgent that there is time to design the grounds, or
5 if the case concerns the communication of regulations referred to in Chapter 8. Government law and it is not a question of review by a higher court on appeal.
Have reasons been omitted, the authority at the request of the party, should if possible, inform him about them afterwards.
Many governments consider the passport to be the property of the government and it can be revoked. Most countries have some sort of due process for this (such as only revoking it for people who are out on bail or who are delinquent on child support). Revoking it for political reasons would violate Article 13 part 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which Sweden voted for):
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.