Iran Sent Thousands Of SMS Seeking Revenge Over 2023 Quran Burnings, Says Sweden

Senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said that a preliminary investigation, carried out by Sweden's SAPO domestic security agency, showed that it was the Iranian state via the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, that carried out a data breach at a Swedish company that runs a major SMS service.

Associated Press

Updated on: 24 September 2024 1:43 pm

Islam's holy book Quran Photo: AP

Sweden says that Iran was behind thousands of text messages that were sent to people in the Scandinavian country calling for revenge over the burnings of the Quran, Islam's holy book in 2023.

Authorities in Stockholm claim that Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard carried out “a data breach" and managed to send “some 15,000 messages text messages in Swedish” over the string of public burnings of the Quran.

Senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said that a preliminary investigation, carried out by Sweden's SAPO domestic security agency, showed that “it was the Iranian state via the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, that carried out a data breach at a Swedish company that runs a major SMS service”.

The Swedish company was not named. There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities on the accusations from Sweden.

In August 2023, Swedish media reported that a large number of people in Sweden had received text messages in Swedish calling for revenge against Quran burners, Ljungqvist said, adding that the sender of the messages was “a group calling itself the Anzu team”.

The protests were held under the freedom of speech which is protected under the Swedish constitution and were approved by police.