China says jailed Swedish publisher is Chinese citizen

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BEIJING (Reuters) -China maintains that jailed Swedish publisher Gui Minhai is a Chinese national and it firmly opposes any country, organization or person interfering with its judicial sovereignty in any form, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Gui, a Hong Kong-based publisher of books critical of China’s communist leaders, was handed a 10-year prison term by China in 2020 for illegally providing intelligence overseas, prompting a protest from Stockholm.

The case has regained attention ahead of a visit to China by Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard from Thursday to Friday.

“I want to emphasize again that Gui Minhai violated China’s laws and regulations and China is handling the case in accordance with the law,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference on Thursday.

Gui, 61, was first abducted in a Thai beach resort of Pattaya in 2015 before surfacing in Chinese detention. He was released in 2017 and detained again by the mainland police in 2018 while with Swedish diplomats on a Beijing-bound train.

A court in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo that sentenced Gui said he had asked to have his Chinese citizenship reinstated.

(Reporting by Colleen Howe and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, William Maclean)