Gui Minhai case: former Swedish ambassador to China on trial in Stockholm

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An unusual trial is held from this June 5 in Stockholm. Anna Lindstedt, former Swedish ambassador to Beijing, is accused of negotiating with mysterious intermediaries to secure the release of Hong Kong publisher Gui Minhai, one of the Chinese regime's beasts.

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With our correspondent in Stockholm, Frédéric Faux

A Hong Kong publisher, Gui Minhai , of Swedish nationality but of Chinese origin, was sentenced to ten years in prison by the communist regime, which does not like its publications. Sweden has always asked for his release, and even awarded him an award in November 2019, from the hands of his Minister of Culture.

But it seems that his ex-ambassador Anna Lindstedt went a little further. According to the Swedish authorities, she "went  beyond her prerogatives  " by organizing, without their knowledge, in Stockholm, a meeting between her daughter and "  businessmen  " linked to the Chinese Communist Party, with a view to freeing the publisher. The main accused, she claims her innocence and claims to have warned her superiors.

This trial of an ambassador, the first in two centuries in Sweden, has in any case sparked controversy within the diplomatic seraglio. Twenty-one former ambassadors defended their colleague Anna Lindstedt in the press, claiming that she had acted within the limits of her rights and her role as ambassador. She faces up to two years in prison.

►Read also: Sweden awards prize to imprisoned Chinese publisher, Beijing anger

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