China jails Swedish book publisher for 10 years

Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai, who holds Swedish citizenship, has been sentenced by a Chinese court to 10 years in jail for “illegally providing intelligence overseas”.

Gui is known to have previously published books on the personal lives of Chinese Communist Party members.

He was an owner of a bookstore in Hong Kong. He has been in and out of Chinese prisons since 2015, when he went missing during a holiday in Thailand. As China does not recognize dual citizenship, his Chinese citizenship has been reinstated in 2018. China ignored Sweden, which was calling for his release and was referring to him as a “citizen”.

Gui ultimately confessed to being involved in a fatal traffic accident. His supporters say the confession was forced. Rights groups condemned the sentence, that they called harsh, and called for his release.

Gui’s daughter later said one of two Chinese businessmen had pressured her to accept a deal where her father would go to trial and might be sentenced to “a few years” in prison. In return, she had to stop her campaigning for her father’s release.