A man in his 30s was arrested in Stockholm on Sunday on suspicion of espionage. Here’s what we know about the case so far.
What’s happened?
The man, whose identity has not been revealed, is suspected of committing espionage, with prosecutors originally stating that this took place between January 1st, 2022 and January 4th, 2026. On Wednesday he was formally remanded in custody (häktad) for committing espionage for a shorter period, between January 2025 and January 2026. It’s not clear yet why the period is now shorter.
For him to be remanded in custody means that the court believes there is “probable cause” to believe he committed a crime that could result in imprisonment of at least one year.
They must also rule that there is a risk of the suspect fleeing, committing further crime, or harming the investigation, in order to keep them in custody.
Who is the suspect?
Few details have been released, other than that the man lives in central Sweden and that he is listed as the CEO of a newly-started cyber security company. He was also employed by the Swedish Armed Forces, with no information yet revealed as to where in the armed forced he worked or for how long.
“We can confirm that information,” the Armed Forces’ head of press, Jonas Beltrame-Linné, told the TT newswire.
We don’t know who he was spying for.
“We can’t release information on which country or countries, or which surveillance or security agency he is suspected of working on behalf of,” prosecutor Per Lindqvist told TT on Monday.
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What exactly is espionage, legally?
Espionage is, under Swedish law, purposefully discovering, passing on or revealing secret information – for example defence-related information – to a foreign power. The information which “if revealed to a foreign power could damage Swedish security” does not have to be correct or real.
The punishment for so-called ‘normal level’ spying is a total of six years in prison, while gross espionage can result in between 4 and 18 years in prison, or in some cases a life sentence.
If there does not appear to be any attempt to share the information with a foreign power, the crime is instead classified as obehörig befattning med hemlig uppgift, unauthorised handling of secret information.