Swedish authorities on Tuesday accused Iranian intelligence services of hacking an SMS operator in 2023 to send messages encouraging people to “to avenge” desecrators of the Koran.
Some 15,000 messages “calling for revenge against the perpetrators of the auto-da-fé of the Koran” were sent in the summer of 2023, in response to a wave of desecrations of the holy book of Islam, according to a press release from the public prosecutor's office. These were “create divisions in Swedish society”. “Preliminary investigation shows that it was the Iranian state, through the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), that hacked the data of a Swedish company operating a major SMS service”detailed prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist in the press release.
“The investigation has allowed us to establish the identity of the Iranian hackers who perpetrated this serious data breach”added Mr Ljungqvist. However, the investigation is now closed due to the inability to indict the Iranian services.
Predominance of freedom of expression
Iran has strongly denied the accusations. “baseless”. “The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Stockholm believes that these statements and their publication in the media poison (…) relations between the two countries”Tasnim news agency reported.
Relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries deteriorated in the summer of 2023 when protests broke out in those countries against several book burnings in the Nordic country, notably at the instigation of Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee.
The Swedish government had then condemned the burning of the holy book on its soil, while recalling the predominance of freedom of expression and assembly.
The Swedish embassy in Iraq was stormed twice, with fires breaking out inside the building during the second attack.
Sweden and Iran have also had strained relations for several years, particularly since the arrest in Sweden in 2019 of a former Iranian prosecutor, Hamid Nouri, and his life sentence for his role in mass executions of opponents ordered by Tehran in 1988. He was handed over to Iran in June 2024 in exchange for the release of two Swedes, including a European Union diplomat.
Source: Lemonde
