STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish prosecutors have requested the detention of a man suspected of spying on ethnic Uyghurs for China, the prosecution authority said on Wednesday.

The prosecution authority declined to give more detail on the case or whether it concerned the small population of Uyghurs living in Sweden or groups elsewhere.

The man, whose nationality was also not disclosed, is in custody in the Swedish capital, court documents showed.

The Chinese embassy in Sweden said in an email it was not aware of the case. It did not comment further.

"The man is suspected of having illegally collected information and intelligence on people in the Uyghur environment on behalf of the Chinese intelligence service," Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in a statement.

Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority group of about 10 million people who live in China's far western Xinjiang region.

Beijing denies any abuse and has accused Western countries of interference and peddling lies.

In 2022, a landmark United Nations report said that China's "arbitrary and discriminatory detention" of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Alison Williams)