COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish government accused Iran on Tuesday of being liable for 1000’s of textual content messages despatched to folks in Sweden calling for revenge over the burnings of Islam’s holy e book in 2023. Iran denied the accusation. Consistent with officers in Stockholm, the cyberattack was once performed by way of Iran’s paramilitary Modern Guard, which hacked an SMS carrier and despatched “some 15,000 textual content messages in Swedish” over the string of public burnings of the Quran that came about over a number of months in Sweden all over the summer time of 2023. Senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist stated a initial investigation by way of Sweden’s SAPO home safety company confirmed “it was once the Iranian state by means of the Iranian Islamic Modern Guard Corps, IRGC, that performed a knowledge breach at a Swedish corporate that runs a big SMS carrier.” The Swedish corporate was once now not named.
The Iranian Embassy in Sweden in a observation rejected the accusation as “baseless” and stated it was once meant to “poison” members of the family between Tehran and Stockholm, the authentic IRNA information company reported. The embassy expects the Swedish executive to stop the unfold of such statements, the file stated.
In August 2023, Swedish media reported that numerous folks in Sweden had won textual content messages in Swedish calling for revenge towards individuals who had been burning the Quran, Ljungqvist stated, including that the sender of the messages was once “a gaggle calling itself the Anzu workforce.”
Swedish broadcaster SVT printed a photograph of a textual content message, pronouncing that “those that desecrated the Quran should have their paintings coated in ashes” and calling Swedes “demons.”The protests had been held underneath the liberty of speech act, which is safe underneath the Swedish charter. The rallies had been authorized by way of police. Then again, the incidents left Sweden torn between its dedication to loose speech and its admire for non secular minorities.
The conflict of elementary rules had sophisticated Sweden’s need to enroll in NATO, a spread that won urgency after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine however wanted the approval of all alliance contributors. Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had quickly blocked Sweden’s accession, mentioning causes together with anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic protests in Stockholm however Sweden after all become a NATO member in March.On the time, the Swedish executive stated it “strongly rejects the Islamophobic act dedicated by way of folks in Sweden,” including that the desecrations didn’t mirror the rustic’s stand. In July closing yr, Iran’s ultimate chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a observation pronouncing that “the insult to the Holy Quran in Sweden is a sour, conspiratorial, bad match” and that the desecrations have “created emotions of hatred and enmity” in Muslim countries towards the folk burning the Quran and their governments.In a separate observation, SAPO’s operational supervisor Fredrik Hallström stated Tuesday that the intent of the textual content messages was once to “paint the picture of Sweden as an Islamophobic nation and create department in society.”
He accused “international powers” of in the hunt for to “exploit vulnerabilities” and stated they had been “now appearing increasingly aggressively, and this can be a construction this is prone to escalate.” He didn’t title any explicit nation.In the meantime, Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, advised Swedish information company TT “{that a} state actor, on this case Iran, consistent with (SAPO’s) overview is in the back of an motion that targets to destabilize Sweden or building up polarization in our nation is after all very severe.”There is not any regulation in Sweden in particular prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Quran or different non secular texts. Like many Western international locations, Sweden doesn’t have any blasphemy rules.“For the reason that actors are appearing for a international energy, on this case Iran, we make the overview that the prerequisites for prosecution in a foreign country or extradition to Sweden are missing for the individuals suspected of being in the back of the breach,“ Ljungqvist stated.Ljungqvist, who’s with the Sweden’s best prosecution authority, stated that despite the fact that the initial investigation has been closed, it “does now not imply that the suspected hackers were totally written off” and that the probe may well be reopened.
Sweden’s home safety company in Would possibly accused Iran of the use of established felony networks in Sweden as a proxy to focus on Israeli or Jewish pursuits within the Scandinavian nation.Iran’s Embassy in Sweden may just now not be reached for a touch upon Tuesday. ___Associated Press creator Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this file.
