Sweden arrests senior Uyghur representative on suspicion of spying for China

Swedish authorities have arrested an ethnic Uyghur man who lives in Stockholm on suspicion of spying on fellow Uyghurs in Sweden, according to the prosecutors.

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an international organization that aims to represent the majority-Muslim population in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, confirmed the arrest on Wednesday based on a court document it had seen.

The WUC has identified the individual as “Dilshat Reshit, who has served as the WUC’s Chinese-language spokesperson since 2004,” and said that after an urgent meeting the body’s leadership decided to remove Reshit from his position. 

Recorded Future News was unable to reach Reshit or his representatives for his response to the arrest. The WUC called for “full transparency and a fair, lawful process” as the investigation continues.

Reshit “is suspected of having illegally collected information and intelligence on people in the Uyghur environment on behalf of the Chinese intelligence service,” according to Swedish prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist.

It follows Western intelligence services issuing a warning about cyber espionage campaigns targeting individuals and organizations worldwide who are tied to activities “considered by the Chinese state to pose a threat to its stability.”

The warning did not include a political attribution of who was behind the spyware targeting those communities, but there is a large volume of industry reporting, including from Google, Check Point and Facebook, identifying likely Chinese state-sponsored digital espionage campaigns targeting the Uyghur community.

Under the Biden administration, the U.S. and allies announced sanctions against the Chinese government over human rights abuses against the Uyghur population, including the detention of millions of Uyghurs in forced labor and reeducation camps.

The United Nations’ human rights investigators concluded in 2022 that China had perpetrated “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities.” Beijing has repeatedly denied all allegations of mistreatment.

In its statement, the WUC said it had since its founding “consistently raised the alarm about the Chinese government’s coordinated efforts to silence dissent abroad. These practices not only endanger the safety and cohesion of Uyghur diaspora communities, but also pose a direct threat to the sovereignty, public safety, and national security of host countries.”

The WUC called on host countries “to ensure effective cooperation between their counterintelligence services and Uyghur organizations” and on human rights organisations “ to continue reporting on incidents of transnational repression and support Uyghur communities in the diaspora.”