14 February 2019•Update: 14 February 2019
By Riyaz ul Khaliq
ANKARA
Sweden’s ambassador to China has returned to her country after accusations that she helped arrange a meeting between Chinese businessmen and the daughter of an imprisoned publisher, reports said Thursday.
Ambassador Anna Lindstedt is said to have returned to Stockholm on Wednesday to meet Swedish foreign ministry officials, the Hong Kong-based daily South China Morning Post reported, citing the Swedish embassy in Beijing.
Gui Minhai, 54, is a Chinese-born Swedish citizen, who is one of many missing booksellers in Hong Kong, while the full circumstances surrounding his arrest remain hazy the newspaper said.
"Reports emerged that she was involved in arranging a meeting between Gui Minhai’s daughter [Angela Gui] and a Chinese businessman said to be trying to secure the release of the bookseller," added the report, underlining that the Swedish mission declined further comment on what it said was an "internal investigation".
Gui, owner of a bookshop and publishing house, was released in October 2017 while serving a sentence for being involved in a fatal 2003 hit-and-run, only to be rearrested three months later for allegedly "leaking state secrets abroad," according to the daily.
Writing on medium -- an online publishing platform -- Angela Gui said she had been contacted by Lindstedt in January, urging her to travel to Stockholm to meet a number of businessmen with regard to her father’s case.
China has denied any role in the meeting. The Chinese embassy in Sweden released a statement last week after reports of the meeting emerged.
"The embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Sweden would like to solemnly state that the Chinese side has never authorized and will not authorize anyone to engage with Gui Minhai’s daughter," the newspaper quoted the Chinese statement.
