The 60-year-old man was singled out as a long-time “procurement agent” for the Russian intelligence service. The district court states that the man’s company did constitute a platform for Russian technology procurement – but that it cannot be said that the purpose was to obtain information.
He is acquitted of all charges in the Stockholm district court.
The 60-year-old man has dealt in electronics and industrial equipment within his company. What prosecutor Henrik Olin has tried to prove is that the man acted as a “procurement agent” for the Russian military-industrial complex GRU.
The indictment concerned gross illegal intelligence activities.
“Had no other purpose”
He is acquitted of the charges. The District Court writes in the judgment: “The evidence relied on in the case most likely points in the direction that NN had no other purpose than the acquisition of technology from the West, so that, according to the assignment, to negotiate, buy and transport requested products”.
– My client is relieved because he has maintained his innocence the whole time, says lawyer Ulrika Borg, the 60-year-old’s defender, to TV4 Nyheterna.
She continues:
– In the security policy situation we have today in Sweden, I, like everyone else, am grateful that we have a functioning intelligence service and a functioning structure that can handle crimes against Sweden. At the same time, I am grateful that we also have a functioning state of law where the court independently examines evidence, maintains its integrity and does not allow itself to be carried away by large media gatherings that write about dawn raids and the FBI.
Formed a platform for technology procurement
The prosecutor has claimed that the man had a large number of business contacts connected to the Russian intelligence service GRU, several of which were owners of his company and are judged by Säpo to be intelligence officers.
The district court states that the now acquitted man “constituted a platform for Russian technology acquisition”, but that the charges are still dropped:
“The reason for this is that nothing came out in the case other than that the business alone
intended for the acquisition of technology from the West and not aimed at obtaining information concerning Sweden or the United States that could constitute espionage”.
His wife was not charged
The accused 60-year-old denied any crime during the trial. He has said that he did not know that people he did business with in his company acted on behalf of Russia.
He was also released after the district court proceedings pending the verdict.
The man’s wife was also arrested in the dawn raid in Nacka on 22 November last year, but the suspicions against her were later dismissed.
TV4 Nyheterna has sought the prosecutor in the case, who will return later this afternoon.