Stockholm (AFP)
She is on trial for "overstepping her prerogatives", endangering national security by trying to negotiate with mysterious intermediaries for the release in China of the publisher Gui Minhai: the former Swedish ambassador to Beijing Anna Lindstedt will be fixed on his fate on Friday.
The verdict of the trial - unprecedented against a diplomat of this rank in the modern history of the Nordic kingdom - is expected at 11:00 (09:00 GMT) in a court in Stockholm.
In post in Beijing from 2016, the defendant - since dismissed from her duties - is on trial for having organized in January 2019 in Stockholm a meeting between the daughter of the Swedish publisher of Chinese origin and "businessmen" claiming to have contacts with Chinese authorities to help secure the release of his father.
This would have been done in his presence and without the knowledge of his hierarchy, according to the Chancellery, which denounces an illegal practice.
In this case, the 60-year-old diplomat is being prosecuted for "arbitrary negotiations with a foreign power".
She faces up to two years in prison. The prosecution requested a suspended sentence in mid-June.
During her trial, Anna Lindstedt denied any responsibility: "During my 30 years as a diplomat, I have been steadfastly faithful to Sweden and to Swedish values, including in this case. It is unreal, not to not say Kafkaesque, to be prosecuted for crimes against the security of the kingdom, "she said in court, quoted by the local press.
- "Probably not correct" -
Gui Minhai, a 56-year-old Swede of Chinese descent, published books with salacious content about Chinese leaders at a Hong Kong publishing house.
Convicted for the first time in China in 2015 for a common law case, he was sentenced to ten years in prison by a Ningbo court in February 2020 for having "illegally disseminated classified information abroad", without justice Chinese does not specify which. Those around him denounce political prosecutions.
Gui Minhai's daughter Angela Gui, very active in the media to advocate for her release, had spoken in February 2019 on her blog of a "strange experience" when Anna Lindstedt invited her to Stockholm.
According to her, the diplomat invited her during January to the Swedish capital to meet "businessmen" with contacts in the sphere of Chinese power.
Called to testify during the trial, she says: this meeting had "something that was probably not correct".
Cited by the media, she said she was pressured to curb criticism of China.
During discussions in the salons of a large hotel, in the presence of the ambassador, they allegedly claimed to have "relations within the Communist Party" in power in China, and assured that they could release the publisher. In exchange, they would have asked Angela Gui to "keep quiet".
Säpo, the Swedish interior intelligence agency, had quickly opened a preliminary investigation against Anna Lindstedt.
According to the prosecution, the case also endangered Sino-Swedish relations, tarnished since the bookseller's detention.
- Historical case -
From this interview, Swedish diplomacy claims to have known nothing, and not even to have been aware of the presence of its ambassador in the capital.
Representatives of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs - heard at the stand, in camera, for reasons of national security - explained that Anna Lindstedt had been instructed to establish contact with Angela Gui through the Chancellery in Stockholm.
The accused claims not to have received such instructions and, according to Swedish public television SVT, she says that she informed her hierarchy of her coming to Stockholm and of her meeting with Angela Gui, the daughter of Gui Minhai.
In February, 21 former ambassadors defended her in the columns the daily Dagens Nyheter, supporting the idea that she had acted within the limits of her rights and her role as ambassador.
It is the first time in over 200 years that an ambassador has been tried in Sweden.
© 2020 AFP