 A Lebanese-born Swedish man
| So his name isn't 'Lars' or 'Sven' or even 'Eric'... |
accused of planning a terror attack in Bangkok last week has professed his innocence, claiming he was set up by the Mossad. Hussein Atris, 47, told Aftonbladet, "I'm 100 percent innocent."
Atris was arrested last Thursday at the airport in Bangkok as he was about to get on a flight back to his home in Lebanon. Atris was later formally charged with illegal explosives possession after Thai police said they found large amounts of ammonium nitrate and fertilizer in a storage facility rented by Atris on the outskirts of Bangkok.
| "I was just growing opium poppies, honest." |
Atris, who moved to Sweden in 1989 and took Swedish citizenship in 1994, claims he was framed. He said, "A lot of the material police found in my storage facility had been placed there, most likely by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad."
Atris misses his family in Lebanon, where he has lived since moving back from Sweden in 2005 after a decade working as a hair dresser in Gothenburg.
| Not that there's anything wrong with that. |
| "It was that bastard Zohan Dvir! He always hated me after I criticised his bleaching technique." |
He claims he has nothing to do with the suspicions against him saying, "This is a plot; I'm only involved in regular business activities."
Atris believes the Mossad singled him out because he is a Shiite who lives in an neighborhood outside of Beirut where support for Hezbollah is strong. Though he denies being a member of Hezbollah, he does own up to having "left-leaning" sympathies.
| There's a profound admission. The Left and Hezbollah? Don't anyone tell the Huffington Post... |
He told Aftonbladet, "I voted for the Social Democrats when I lived in Sweden. That may have made me look suspicious in the eyes of the Mossad. They had an eye on me."
| About half of all Israelis vote left of the Social Democrats back home... |
Atris explained that, at the time of his arrest, he was in Thailand to check on how some storage facilities he had rented near Bangkok had fared following flooding in the area late last year.
| "You know, to store all the opium." |
"We bought goods in Asia and exported them to other countries, including Lebanon. It was fans, copy paper, ice packs used for pain relief," said Atris, describing an import-export business he started with a friend in Lebanon three years ago.
Thai police say the storage container contained bomb making material, including plenty of ammonia and fertilizer. Atris explained, "The [ice packs] contain ammonia. It's as simple as that. We've never traded in fertilizer. It must have been placed in our storage facility by someone, probably the Mossad." |