China urges Sweden probe into Chinese tourists’ incident
China called for a thorough investigation by Sweden of the incident where three Chinese tourists were allegedly manhandled by Swedish police during their stay in Stockholm earlier in September, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Monday.
China has not been briefed of the investigation process, and the Swedish police have yet to respond to the Chinese embassy’s request for a meeting on the matter up to now, which is inconsistent with diplomatic and internationally accepted practices,” Geng said at a regular press conference on Monday.
Reuters asked why there has been quite a strong diplomatic response from China and if it was in any way related to the case of Gui Minhai and the pressure Sweden has been putting on China there.
Geng responded that China’s stance on Gui’s case is consistent and clear, and it has not changed.
The Chinese tourist, surnamed Zeng, was allegedly manhandled by Swedish police and told the Global Times that the police had hit his elderly parents inside the police car, and demanded the release of relevant videos.
Zeng and his parents were reportedly dragged out of a hotel by police in Stockholm and later dropped off near a cemetery.
Zeng’s mother, 64, was taken in a police car with her hands behind her back, and police allegedly hit her in the vehicle when she “was tired of the position and just moved her body a bit,” Zeng recalled.
His father, 67, fainted when he was carried inside another police car Zeng claimed.
Zeng said he was also taken inside another vehicle, and he and his parents were then driven to an area close to a graveyard in Stockholm.
Zeng and his parents traveled from China to Europe in mid-August, and arrived at a hostel in Stockholm in early morning of September 2.
“The case is now closed, or there was never an investigation on the case,” Anna Westberg, media center spokesperson of the Stockholm police region, said in an email to the Global Times on Monday.
Local procuratorate authorities also confirmed with Global Times that there were no criminal acts found before they decided to drop the investigation.
The manager on duty of the Stockholm hostel claimed that there were no surveillance cameras in the lobby, so it was unable to review how the police actually handled the case.