Body found in Swedish river is exiled Pakistani journalist, police say

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for May 3

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

A body found late last month in a river in Sweden has been identified as the exiled Pakistani journalist Sajid Hussain, who had vanished on March 2, Swedish police said.

Although police initially were treating the case as a murder investigation, suspicions of foul play have ebbed since an autopsy has been performed. Still, police spokesman Jonas Eronen told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, "we’re still waiting for a few more answers."

Hussain, 39, was last seen boarding a train in Stockholm on his way to the city of Uppsala on March 2 to collect keys to a new apartment but never got off the train, according to the press-freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

RSF suggested he could have been abducted "at the behest of a Pakistani intelligence agency."

TRUMP CRITICIZES SWEDEN'S NO-LOCKDOWN STANCE AFTER WHO PRAISE, CLAIMS US MADE 'CORRECT DECISION'

Hussain had escaped Pakistan for Sweden in 2012 following his reporting on corruption in the Pakistani government, which sounded the alarm on forced disappearances and human-rights violations in the region. He was the editor and publisher of the online magazine Balochistan Times, which he founded in 2015, but police raided his house and he started receiving death threats, forcing him to seek asylum in Sweden. He has been registered since January at Uppsala University, the Nordic region’s oldest university, studying Arabic language and acting as a lecturer.

In a statement published on Friday, the Balochistan Times announced its staff was "deeply saddened by the demise of our dear friend and the founder of this magazine."

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

"As a journalist, (Hussain) was compassionate and wrote extensively on the suffering of the Baloch people. His work often got him into trouble as the authorities did not like his reporting of Balochistan's forbidden stories, the reason he had to leave and live in exile," the statement continued.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.