In the summer of 2023, Swedes received text messages urging them to take revenge on those who burned Korans. Now the Swedish prosecutor says that they were the work of Iran.
The strange text messages received by Swedes in the summer of 2023 were a special operation by the Iranian security service, the Swedish Prosecutor’s Office says. Reported about it among others SVT.
In the summer of 2023, Sweden was plagued by unrest after protesters burned Korans in high-profile anti-Islam demonstrations.
In August, Swedes around the country received a strange message on their phones.
– Those who violated the Koran must be punished for their actions. We encourage you to send revenge photos of these demons to anzuteam.com and receive a special reward, the text message read.
According to the Swedish Prosecutor’s Office, the country’s security police Säpo has investigated what happened and the preliminary investigation is now complete.
– The investigation shows that the Iranian state used the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) to carry out a data breach of a Swedish company, which is a large SMS service provider, the lead prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist tells.
The investigation revealed, among other things, the identities of the hackers who carried out the data breach. According to the prosecutor, the purpose of the operation was to worsen the already tense situation and incite a dispute between different ethnic groups.
The prosecutor says that because the hackers work for a state actor, the suspects cannot be held responsible abroad or extradited to Sweden.