Intelligence providers say Iran sought to painting Sweden as ‘Islamophobic’ and divide society.
Sweden has accused Iran of sending 1000’s of textual content messages calling for revenge assaults over the burning of the Quran.
In a press release launched on Tuesday, the Swedish Prosecution Authority stated that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) hacked into a neighborhood SMS operator final 12 months and despatched out about 15,000 textual content messages calling for retaliation after Islam’s holy book was burned throughout protests.
“[A] cyber group acted on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to hold out an affect marketing campaign,” the Swedish Safety Service SAPO stated in a press release.
“The aim was, amongst different issues, to color the picture of Sweden as an Islamophobic nation and create division in society,” it stated.
Swedish broadcaster SVT printed a photograph of a textual content message, saying that “those that desecrated the Quran should have their work coated in ashes” and calling Swedes “demons”.
Iranian authorities had made no touch upon the accusations on the time of writing.
Deep dialogue
The textual content messages had been despatched out by a gaggle calling itself the Anzu staff in August 2023, following a sequence of protests that featured assaults on the Quran.
The protests, authorised by police, had been held underneath the liberty of speech act, which is protected underneath the Swedish structure.
As is normal in Western nations, Sweden has no blasphemy legal guidelines and there’s no legislation particularly banning the burning or desecration of the Quran or different non secular texts.
Nonetheless, as is frequent in Europe relating to such incidents, a deep dialogue emerged in Sweden in regards to the steadiness between dedication to free speech and respect for non secular minorities.
Sweden raised its terrorism alert following the Quran burnings.
Within the assertion issued on Tuesday, SAPO’s operational supervisor Fredrik Hallstrom accused “international powers” of looking for to “exploit vulnerabilities” and stated they had been “now appearing increasingly more aggressively, and it is a growth that’s more likely to escalate.”
He didn’t identify any particular nation.
Investigation closed
Whereas Sweden’s prosecutors stated they’ve recognized the “Iranian hackers” accountable for the textual content marketing campaign, they closed the investigation given it’s unlikely they could possibly be dropped at justice.
“Because the actors are appearing for a international energy, on this case Iran, we make the evaluation that the situations for prosecution overseas or extradition to Sweden are missing for the individuals suspected of being behind the breach,” senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist stated.
Nonetheless, that “doesn’t imply that the suspected hackers have been utterly written off” and the probe could possibly be reopened, he added.
Sweden’s intelligence service in Might accused Iran of utilizing established felony networks in Sweden as a proxy to focus on Israeli or Jewish pursuits.