Politically shrewd for each of the 3 primary governments involved, removes the issue from the agenda. I'd say its zero-sum outcome for any player: as many people will be angry as happy he's freed. the point being it can't be weaponised as easily as having him in the cell.
Sweden may differ of course. I don't think either of the 3 primaries care what Sweden thinks.
The people downvoting your comment are ignorant on reality. It is common knowledge that Sweden has been used by the CIA as a black site. Sweden has been a satellite state to the US for a long time, just as other countries are or have been satellites of Russia.
Edit: Your down votes do not change reality. More important countries than Sweden have been satellites, such as East and West Germany.
The US promised to not torture three guys who were handed over to them, and then started torturing them, illegally at Bromma airport, but this was restricted to things that they did not regard as torture, such as drugging people, putting things into their colons, use of 'restraints', etc.
There were no black sites in Sweden. There was torture here, but only for one afternoon, on an airplane that soon left our territory.
It's a lot less bad than the worst stuff, so it's easy to miss. Sweden lost a case in the ECHR due to this one, and we didn't really participate and instead had obtained guarantees that weren't held to.
I suspect and hope that you're not such a person in real life as you give the impression here of being.
- Mainstream media of all political alignments have reported on CIA black sites.
- The Red Cross has investigated CIA black sites and delivered reports to the White House on them.
- The Council of Europe has investigated CIA black sites:
"A June 2006 report from the Council of Europe estimated 100 people had been kidnapped by the CIA on EU territory (with the cooperation of Council of Europe members), and rendered to other countries, often after having transited through secret detention centres ("black sites") used by the CIA, some located in Europe."
- The European Parliament officially criticized (after a vote) the European nations (including Seden) who:
"...have been relinquishing control over their airspace and airports by turning a blind eye or admitting flights operated by the CIA which, on some occasions, were being used for illegal transportation of detainees"
This is not some "conspiracy nut" stuff. This stuff has been widely known for decades and reported everywhere. If you didn't know about it, you haven't read the news. You can look into it on Wikipedia if you want, of all places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_black_sites
Sweden may differ of course. I don't think either of the 3 primaries care what Sweden thinks.