The World Uyghur Congress says a man detained in Sweden on suspicion of spying on fellow Uyghurs there for China served as a spokesman for the exiled group for two decades.
The WUC said in a statement Wednesday that Dilshat Reshit, has been its Chinese-language spokesman since 2004. The WUC said its presidency had decided at an emergency meeting to remove Reshit from his position “in line with our commitment to integrity, transparency, and the safety of our community.”
Reports citing the Swedish prosecution authority said an unnamed Uyghur resident of Stockholm had been detained at the weekend on suspicion of spying on fellow Uyghurs in Sweden. The WUC said that a court document identified the individual as Reshit.
RFA was not able to contact Reshit or a legal representative for him for comment.
The WUC is the main global umbrella group advocating for Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group that is severely persecuted inside China.
Swedish prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in a statement Wednesday that the man “is suspected of having illegally collected information and intelligence on people in the Uyghur environment on behalf of the Chinese intelligence service,” Reuters reported.
The Chinese embassy in Sweden told Reuters in an email it was not aware of the case and did not comment further.
The WUC statement provided no further explanation about how their organization was allegedly infiltrated by someone spying for Beijing, but said it has long warned of the international reach of Chinese espionage networks.
It said it has implemented “internal counterintelligence measures” but “we lack the institutional and financial resources to confront the full scale and sophistication of transnational repression on our own.” It called for closer cooperation with foreign governments on counterintelligence.
The statement said China’s efforts to silence dissent abroad “not only endanger the safety and cohesion of Uyghur diaspora communities, but also pose a direct threat to the sovereignty, public safety, and national security of host countries.”
China is deeply sensitive, and summarily rejects, international criticism of its harsh treatment of Uyghurs, which researchers say is well-documented and which the U.S. government says amounts to genocide.
In 2022, a United Nations report said that China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in the far western region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.