Sweden Probes Ambassador To China Over Gui Case

Sweden's foreign ministry has started an internal investigation into the country's ambassador to China over claims she acted inappropriately regarding the case of detained Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai.

The Swedish Embassy in Beijing confirmed that Ambassador Anna Lindstedt is under investigation and Sweden's public broadcaster Sveriges Radio reported that Lindstedt was recalled to Stockholm this week.

The action comes after Gui's daughter, Angela, revealed how she was recently offered a deal by businessmen claiming to have contacts with the Communist Party who said she could visit her father in China and he might even be released, in exchange for her silence.

Angela Gui, who has been campaigning for her father's release, went on to write in a blog post on Wednesday that in fact Lindstedt had contacted her to arrange the two-day meeting with the businessmen in Stockholm in January, telling her it was time to explore a "new approach".

The ambassador was said to have been present during the talks at a hotel where Angela Gui said she was threatened by the businessmen, and where at some points she felt like she was being held captive.

Swedish media quoted a press spokesman as saying the foreign ministry was not aware of the meeting in advance.

"When we subsequently found out about this, we decided to begin an internal investigation into whether there was possible wrongdoing in connection with the events at the end of January," said the spokesman.

Gui Minhai, who is a naturalised Swedish citizen, was one of five men from a Causeway Bay book store who vanished in 2015.

They are widely believed to have been kidnapped by mainland security agents – Gui Minhai from Thailand, Lee Bo from Hong Kong and Lam Wing-kee, Cheung Chi-ping and Lui Por while they were visiting the mainland. All five were later found to be in mainland custody and were eventually released.

Gui Minhai was out of detention and living with his wife in Ningbo when he was snatched again in January last year as he was travelling on a train accompanied by two diplomats from the Swedish consulate in Shanghai.