EU Demands China Free Swedish Publisher Gui Minhai

The European Parliament has demanded the immediate release of Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, abducted in Thailand and imprisoned in China in 2015. The resolution also called for an end to China's practice of arbitrary detention and coerced televised confessions.

Gui Minhai, a Swedish publisher of Chinese origin, has been repeatedly detained and placed under house arrest by Chinese authorities. His abduction in Thailand in 2015 marked the start of an alarming pattern of cross-border disappearances targeting publishers critical of the Chinese Communist Party. After his abduction, he was shown on Chinese state television confessing to crimes, a practice condemned by the European Parliament. Following his release in 2017, he was placed under house arrest for nearly a year. Despite international pressure, he was rearrested in 2018 and later sentenced to ten years in prison on espionage charges. Gui remains the only one still imprisoned among four individuals connected to Causeway Bay Books who vanished under similar circumstances. Reporters Without Borders considers him an 'emblematic figure among more than a hundred media workers currently detained in China'. His daughter Angela has renewed her plea for help, expressing uncertainty about her father's whereabouts and condition.

The European Parliament has passed a joint motion urging Beijing to release Gui and all others detained for peacefully exercising their basic freedoms. Despite international pressure, Gui Minhai remains imprisoned in China, highlighting the ongoing issue of arbitrary detention and suppression of free speech in the country.