Ex-Swedish China envoy acquitted over talks to free jailed bookseller Gui Minhai

Anna Lindstedt was accused of attending an unauthorised meeting last year to get the Chinese-Swedish publisher freed from custody in China

This is the first time since the 18th century that an ambassador has faced trial in Sweden

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Ex-Swedish ambassador to China Anna Lindstedt arrives at the district court in Stockholm. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:21pm, 10 Jul 2020Updated: 6:23pm, 10 Jul 2020

A Stockholm court on Friday cleared Sweden’s former ambassador to Beijing of charges of overstepping her mandate by trying to negotiate the release of a dissident.

Anna Lindstedt, who was envoy to Beijing between 2016 and 2019, was accused of brokering and attending an unauthorised meeting in January last year to get a Chinese-Swedish publisher freed from custody in China.

Lindstedt said she had been “unfailingly loyal” to Sweden throughout her 30-year career, telling the court: “It is unreal, not to say Kafkaesque to stand accused of crimes against national security.”

The Stockholm district court said in its verdict: “Overall, it is established that the objective requisites for the crime of arbitrariness at negotiations with foreign powers are in no part fulfilled.”

The case of dissident Gui Minhai – a five-year-saga beginning when he vanished while on holiday in Thailand – has strained relations between Sweden and China.

Lindstedt is accused of brokering a meeting between the publisher’s daughter Angela Gui and businessmen with alleged ties to Beijing.

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