A Swedish court has permitted a Cambodian man to alter his Tax Agency details, which will see an additional 12 years added to the his age.
The court heard that, after 10 years living in Sweden, the complainant felt sufficiently secure to reveal his true date of birth and establish his correct identity, reports The Local.
The court was told how, helped by the refugee organisation UNHCR, the man was released from a Cambodian military jail where he was being held as a political prisoner under suspicion of plotting to murder Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. He fled to Thailand but was deemed in acute need of removal from southeast Asia. He was transferred to Sweden under the refugee quota in 2000.
On arrival in Sweden, the man submitted a Resettlement Registration Form to the UNHCR, the details of which were handed over to Swedish authorities who established his birth date as 1st January, 1960. The man claimed he provided the incorrect information to thrown Thai and Cambodian authorities off his trail.
After settling in Sweden, the former prisoner sought to amend his information to document his actual date of birth of 12th August 1947, but this was rejected by the Swedish tax agency because of concerns that the proof submitted was not adequately reliable. However, the Swedish appeal court has overruled the tax agency’s decision based on a wealth of evidence, including identification cards, prison release forms, newspaper articles, a Vietnamese Embassy certificate and human rights and press cards.
“The court considers that it should be sufficient if on assessment the new details appear to be correct when compared to the older information and taking into account the wider circumstances. Existing erroneous information is just as false as new erroneous information,” the court stated.