Swedish authorities have charged former Ambassador to China Anna Lindstedt with arbitrariness during negotiations with a foreign power, after she held unofficial meetings with representatives of the Chinese state to help secure the release of jailed Swedish-Chinese book publisher Gui Minhai, a statement from the prosecution read on Monday
STOCKHOLM (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2019) Swedish authorities have charged former Ambassador to China Anna Lindstedt with arbitrariness during negotiations with a foreign power, after she held unofficial meetings with representatives of the Chinese state to help secure the release of jailed Swedish-Chinese book publisher Gui Minhai, a statement from the prosecution read on Monday."An ambassador is the head of a public authority with a far-reaching mandate to represent Sweden; nonetheless, even ambassadors must adhere to certain guidelines and instructions issued by the Government Offices of Sweden and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In this specific consular matter, she has exceeded her mandate and has therefore rendered herself criminally liable," Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor at the National Security Unit Hans Ihrman said in the statement.
Lindstedt was initially recalled from Beijing in February, after the Swedish Prosecution Authority started its investigation against her. Investigators believed that Lindstedt, by arranging a meeting between Minhai's daughter, Angela, and Chinese businessmen who promised to help free her father, had threatened Sweden's national security interests.
Ihrman said that such a charge for a member of Sweden's ambassadorial staff was "unprecedented in modern times."
Gui Minhai, a naturalized Swedish citizen of Chinese origin, was a critical Hong Kong-based bookseller and publisher. He disappeared in late 2015 and later appeared confessing to crimes on Chinese television. After being released in October 2017, he was rearrested in January 2018 while accompanied by Swedish diplomats.
