China releases and deports Swedish rights activist after TV ‘confession’

Beijing has released and deported a Swedish man it accused of training and funding unlicensed lawyers in the country, leading to an extraordinary taped confession broadcast on state television. Swedish embassy spokesman Sebastian Magnusson confirmed that Peter Dahlin had left China but was unable to provide further details. Dahlin, co-founder of China Urgent Action Working Group, was featured in a 10-minute segment on state broadcaster CCTV last week in which he confessed to helping unlicensed lawyers take on cases against the government “in clear violation of the law”.

Many unanswered questions remain in both cases and we continue to request clarification of what our citizens are being accused of and the formal status of their arrests.

Swedish embassy, on Friday

He was arrested Jan. 3 on his way to Beijing’s international airport. Another co-founder of the group, Michael Caster, who lives in the United States, tweeted that Dahlin’s girlfriend Pan Jinling had also been released from detention but remained in China. In the CCTV program, Dahlin said the people his group supported had “gone on to do acts in clear violation of the law.” He apologized for hurting “the Chinese government and Chinese people.” Dahlin’s group called the confession “apparently forced” and rejected accusations that it manufactured or escalated conflicts inside China.

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