A Swedish court on Wednesday ordered the detention of a man suspected of spying on ethnic Uyghurs for China, Sweden’s prosecution authority said on Wednesday.
The prosecution authority declined to give more detail on the case or whether it concerned the small population of Uyghurs living in Sweden or groups elsewhere.
[…]
The man, whose nationality was also not disclosed, is in custody in the Swedish capital, court documents showed.
“The man is suspected of having illegally collected information and intelligence on people in the Uyghur environment on behalf of the Chinese intelligence service,” Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in a statement earlier on Wednesday.
[…]
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority group of about 10 million people who live in China’s far western Xinjiang region.
Beijing denies any abuse and has accused Western countries of interference and peddling lies.
In 2022, a landmark United Nations report said that China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.
[…]
What do they want to do with Uyghurs in Sweden?
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) conducts the most sophisticated and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression among all countries on the globe, pressuring Chinese diaspora overseas, e.g., members of ethnic and religious minorities, political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists (and often simply the family members of these people in sort of collective punishment) by using direct attacks like renditions, to co-opting other countries to detain and render exiles, to mobility controls, to threats from a distance like digital threats, spyware, coercion.
For example, in a new study published in February 2025, the rights group Freedom House has documented 1,219 incidents of transnational repression carried out by 48 governments across 103 countries between 2014 to 2024. A smaller number of countries account for the vast majority of all documented physical attacks on dissidents, with China the most frequent offender, responsible for 272 incidents, or 22% of recorded cases (Russia, Turkey and Egypt also rank among the worst perpetrators).
A good source for this and similar issues is also safeguarddefenders.com.
Man why is it that whenever I find my country on a list it’s always for stuff like this? I mean it’s deserved but still.
Perhaps check if they speek about the situation in China, make life harder for them in Sweden and their family back in China, abduct them from Sweden back to China. Many aspects to think about.
That’s sxary to even think about. Not being safe from an evil country an entire continent away 😰
Indeed.