A couple suspected of a serious secrecy crime was arrested in Stockholm on Tuesday morning.
The district court in Stockholm has ordered the imprisonment of a high-ranking Swedish officer and his female friend who works in intelligence duties on suspicion of aggravated possession of secret information.
In Sweden, possession of classified information is classified as a crime against national security.
A middle-aged woman suspected of the crime of secrecy appeared before the district court at around two o’clock in the afternoon. The woman who works at FRA, the Swedish Defense Forces’ signal intelligence facility, had covered her face with a blanket brought from prison.
Another suspect in the crime is a 55-year-old officer with a long military career in the country’s defense forces. The trial for the man’s imprisonment began in Stockholm two hours after the decision to imprison the woman.
According to the Swedish media, the suspected man has worked for national defense in another agency in recent years.
The man owns a Swedish public radio company according to SVT extensive experience in intelligence tasks in the Swedish military intelligence and security service. Aftonbladet according to him, questions concerning Russia belong to the man’s areas of expertise.
The suspected officer denies the charges against him.
– He denies all the charges as completely unfounded. He is convinced that the case will be solved quickly, the suspect’s defense lawyer Thomas Olsson said Thursday.
The woman suspected of the same crime also denies having committed the crime. Both suspects recently said that they intend to appeal the detention decision to the Court of Appeal.
The Swedish security police Säpo and the prosecutor have so far been very tight-lipped when commenting on the case.
According to the prosecutors, the suspected criminal activity has continued since June 1 until the day of the suspects’ arrest, i.e. until Tuesday. The couple was arrested in Stockholm on Tuesday morning.
– I can state that the case involves very serious criminal suspicions, Swedish Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer said yesterday, Thursday, according to SVT.