Gui Minhai is a Hong Kong-based Swedish citizen. In 2015, he was abducted by the Chinese authorities and held in custody two years.
Gui Minhai Source: Aftonbladet
This time, police officers took him off the train on his way to the Swedish embassy in Hong Kong for a medical examination. After two years in prison, he developed symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that slowly attacks the brain and spinal cord, affecting the patient’s ability to walk, swallow and use chopsticks.
In 2017, human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize but didn’t attend the awards ceremony due to his imprisonment, died under police guard in hospital after he was belatedly diagnosed with liver cancer.
Minhai’s daughter Angela Gui, who lives and studies in the UK, told the New York Times: “This group of about 10 men in plain clothes just came in and grabbed him from the train and took him away. I presume it must have been quite a scene.”
After police officers took him away, Chinese officials told Swedish diplomats that Gui Minhai was suspected of sharing secret information and added his meeting with them was illegal.
Commenting on the information, Angela Gui said: “Obviously, they’ve acknowledged that he’s a Swedish citizen. How that [meeting with with other citizens of Sweden] is a crime is difficult to comprehend.”
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