Amid Israel ire, Swedish author receives death threats

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:53:09 GMT

The Swedish author of a controversial article accusing the Israeli Army of harvesting organs from wounded or killed Palestinians says he has received several death threats.

Freelance journalist Donald Bostrom who published the article in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet has raised Israel's ire.

Bostrom, who spoke to CNN from Stockholm, said he had received several death threats about the article.

"I have an e-mail here… 'The Nazis should die and you will be next; we will meet you outside, you will be the next news very soon. Meet you outside'," Bostrom said.

Bostrom said he wrote the article in reaction to a recently discovered crime syndicate in New Jersey, which was involved in organ smuggling.

He said the purpose of his opinion article was to call for an investigation into numerous claims in the 1990s that such activity was going on.

The report has sparked outrage among Israeli officials who have been calling on Stockholm to condemn the article.

Although the Swedish Embassy in Tel Aviv called the report "as shocking and appalling to us Swedes, as it is to Israeli citizens", Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt refused to condemn the report, saying a free press is an integral part of his country's democracy.