Swedish safety company Sapo accused Iranian intelligence of hacking into textual content messaging companies and sending 15,000 messages to Swedes.
Sapo mentioned final summer time’s leak concerned textual content messages calling for “revenge towards those that burned the Quran” after a number of anti-Islam activists set fireplace to copies of the Quran.
A preliminary investigation led by prosecutors discovered that a web-based group referred to as Anzu, representing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), sought to sow social divisions and paint Sweden as an Islamophobic state.
Though the Swedish authorities condemned the burning of the Quran and the police tried to ban it, the courts allowed the burning of the Quran underneath free speech legal guidelines.
The incidents sparked outrage in a number of Muslim-majority international locations, with the Swedish embassy in Iraq set on fireplace by protesters.
Final month, Swedish prosecutors charged an Iraqi activist and a co-conspirator with inciting minority teams in reference to the burning of books. Each males deny wrongdoing.
The Anzu group allegedly hacked right into a Swedish firm’s messaging service on the finish of July 2023 and took over passwords, usernames and different instruments, then despatched a message to personal people on August 1, saying “those that insult the Quran have to be punished”. Being punished for his or her work”.
A few of these concerned within the operation had ties to the Revolutionary Guards, and the textual content messages partly succeeded in additional fueling the marketing campaign towards Sweden, Fredrik Hallström of Sapo informed Dagbladet. threaten.
Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist mentioned investigators had efficiently recognized the Iranian hackers however had been unable to extradite them and the preliminary investigation had been placed on maintain.
Safety companies warn that overseas powers resembling Iran are seizing the chance to sow division and assist their very own regimes.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömer mentioned in an announcement that it was very critical that state actors resembling Iran aimed to “destabilize Sweden or exacerbate polarization in our nation.”
This isn’t the primary time Swedish safety companies have accused the Iranian authorities of committing hostile acts on its soil.
Final Might, Sapo mentioned Tehran used Swedish felony networks to commit violence towards different Swedish international locations, teams or people that Iran thought-about a risk.
It famous that Iran, together with Russia and China, represent Sweden’s biggest security threat.
