In the same case, in January of this year, the Stockholm district court sentenced another person for aggravated espionage to nine years and ten months in prison.
The Svea Court of Appeal writes, among other things, in its judgment that the crime is to be considered serious. The information, which is covered by the indictment, has been acquired, forwarded and disclosed to the Russian intelligence service GRU. The Court of Appeal states that the crime took place between 2011 and 2017 and that the acquisition of the data took place when the one man was employed by the Armed Forces in 2011-2014 and the Security Police in 2014-2015.
It was the Security Police that identified the former employee after extensive intelligence work based on information that someone in the Swedish intelligence system offered information to a foreign power. A preliminary investigation was initiated in 2017 under the direction of prosecutors at the National Security Unit.
Security and intelligence services are a priority target for foreign powers and the intelligence threat is high. Russia is one of the countries that pose the biggest security threat to Sweden. Russia conducts, among other things, cyberespionage, acquisition via human sources and other security-threatening activities.
Tags: Life imprisonment aggravated espionage
