Peyman Kia, 42, was sentenced in the district court to life imprisonment for serious espionage crimes.
Now the Court of Appeal confirms the historic verdict.
Together with his younger brother Payam Kia, 35, he spied on Sweden for Russian intelligence.
– I dare say that without a doubt I was the one in Sweden who had the best track of everything.
This is how Peyman Kia describes himself after years of working in the heart of the Swedish intelligence service.
At the same time, from within the Security Police and the Military Intelligence and Security Service (Must), he spied on behalf of Russia.
The 42-year-old from Uppsala, who, among other things, worked with counterespionage, was sentenced in the district court to life imprisonment for gross espionage and unauthorized position with secret information.
The Svea Court of Appeal confirmed the life sentence today.
– We are very satisfied with the judgment of the Court of Appeal. We have received full approval in both the issue of guilt and penalty in the Court of Appeal, says senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist in a comment.
Received over one million kroner
The prosecutor argued that the espionage took place from September 2011 to September 2021. The Court of Appeal changed the time of the crime so that it was committed from October 15, 2011 through February 2017.
According to information in the district court, Peyman Kia sold at least 90 top-secret documents to Russian intelligence. He denied all wrongdoing and chose to appeal the sentence.
But ahead of the appeal court hearings in March, TV4 Nyheterna was able to reveal the turnaround. Peyman Kia had asked for talks with Säpo – and chose to “put all the cards on the table”.
The 42-year-old admitted the contacts with Russia but stated that he only handed over sharp intelligence information on the first occasion. Everything else was made up, according to himself.
– Based on the orders that came, I simply went with a robber and completely made it up, but which I thought could be judged as probable, and I was compensated for that as well, said the former Säpo and Must employee Peyman Kia and stated that the motive was financial.
– It was simply to swindle me out of money.
The Court of Appeal considers that the 42-year-old mole received a total of 120,000 US dollars, corresponding to roughly 1.2 million Swedish kronor.
Court of Appeal: Do not believe Peyman Kia’s story
The prosecutors and Säpo’s spy investigation alleged that the classified information was sold to the Russian military intelligence service GRU. But according to Peyman Kia, the information was first shared with the foreign intelligence service SVR, before it later passed to the GRU.
The Court of Appeal considers that it has been proven that Peyman Kia sold “the absolute majority of the information covered by the indictment” to the Russian intelligence service GRU. However, they do not believe “in the new information that some sharp and some false information in 2016 was handed over to another Russian intelligence service and that it is that intelligence service that paid the compensation.”
– After a careful examination of the defendant’s new information in the Court of Appeal and the evidence in general, the Court of Appeal has come to the conclusion that the older brother should be sentenced to life imprisonment for aggravated espionage, essentially in accordance with the indictment in the district court, says Court of Appeal advisor Mari-Ann Roos , referee in the case, in a press release.
“Extremely serious crime”
Peyman Kia’s lawyer Anton Strand argued in the Court of Appeal that the 42-year-old’s sentence should be time-limited and not exceed ten years, including when he has now cooperated with Säpo’s investigators.
The Court of Appeal, however, followed the district court’s line regarding the law’s strictest punishment as Peyman Kia “with full knowledge of the damaging effects acquired, forwarded and disclosed the information to Russia, which constitutes the main threat to Sweden’s security.”
– This is an extremely serious crime. For that reason, we believe that any other penalty than life imprisonment for the older brother could not be considered, says chief prosecutor Per Lindqvist in a comment.
The younger brother Payam Kia, 35, was sentenced to nine years and ten months in prison by the Stockholm district court for aggravated espionage. According to the investigation, he was the one who managed the contacts with Russian intelligence.
Dead mailbox: Library in Uppsala
However, the 35-year-old has consistently denied wrongdoing and also chose to appeal. In the Court of Appeal, he admitted, for the first time, that he left envelopes for taxi drivers who went to the Russian embassy and on two occasions picked up packages with cash in them at the Karin Boye library in Uppsala. However, he believes that he did not learn until afterwards that parts of the information provided to Russia were genuine.
Just before the Court of Appeal verdict was to be announced last week, Payam Kia chose to withdraw its appeal, which is why the verdict was handed down today instead. According to his lawyer, Björn Sandin, the little brother continues to deny the crime but does not want to risk the punishment increasing as the prosecutors have demanded 14 years in prison. He is therefore not covered by today’s sentence, and the district court’s penalty thus stands.
The case, where the trial was mostly held behind closed doors and under heavy security, has been called one of Sweden’s worst and biggest spy scandals. They did not want to comment on the damage caused by the espionage, but both the district court and the court of appeal state that it means “extremely serious damage to Sweden’s security” in the event of disclosure of the current intelligence information.
– This is a unique case which has entailed great challenges for the defendants and their defenders but also for the judiciary when it comes to ensuring both the defendants’ absolute right to a fair trial and maintaining the strong secrecy that ultimately applies to the protection of Sweden’s security , says Court of Appeal lawyer Ragnar Palmkvist, who chaired the case, in a press release.