Swedish Personalities Demand Release Of Gui Minhai

Dozens of journalists, politicians, academics and cultural personalities in Sweden penned a joint appeal on Tuesday, demanding China immediately release Causeway Bay bookseller and Swedish citizen Gui Minhai.

In an article published in more than 30 newspapers across the Scandinavian country, the well-known figures noted that two and a half years have passed since Gui disappeared from his holiday home in Thailand, only to turn up later in detention on the mainland.

A similar fate is believed to have befallen four of Gui's colleagues, including Lee Bo who is widely thought to have been snatched from Hong Kong and forced over the border, and Lam Wing-kee who later returned to the SAR claiming to have been illegally held over the publishing of books that displeased the Communist Party.

Although Gui was released in October 2017, he was grabbed again by mainland security agents in January of this year, right in front of the noses of Swedish diplomats travelling with him on a train from Ningbo to Beijing.

"The Chinese authorities' actions against Gui Minhai breach fundamental legal principles and constitute a serious violation of human rights. These fundamental legal principles and human rights do not stop at China's or any other country's borders," the article said.

"Before Sweden's national day tomorrow, we urge the Chinese authorities to immediately free Gui Minhai."

The Swedish government has called in the past for Gui's release. But Beijing has insisted that Stockholm has no right to interfere in China's affairs, suggesting that the diplomats with Gui when he was snatched for a second time had also broken mainland law.