The Swedish brothers Peyman and Payam Kia are accused of serious espionage. Behind closed doors in the Stockholm district court, the prosecutors have the argument for how the brothers are said to have sold top secret documents to the Russian intelligence service GRU.
– It is very serious, says Runar Viksten, former chairman of the Defense Intelligence Tribunal, to Kalla fakta.
Historic spy hunt
The historic spy hunt is coming to an end and today the last witnesses are being questioned. For several years, the Security Police conducted an investigation against its own force. Secret information was leaked from both the Security Police and the Armed Forces – and the mole was to be stopped. After first searching more broadly, the investigation was able to call in one person in January 2017.
Peyman Kia, previously employed by both authorities, had then attracted the prosecutor’s interest. From the outside, he appeared as an ideal intelligence employee. Soon after he finished his studies at Uppsala University, he was accepted into the aspirant program at the Security Police. He was brought up in the complexity of the intelligence world and was given the opportunity to work at all Säpo’s operational roots. When colleagues describe him, the image emerges of an esteemed and professional person.
In the last years before his arrest, Peyman Kia worked at the Swedish Food Agency. In an interview with TV4’s Kalla fakta, the authority’s director general, Annica Sohlström, says that more people than herself at the agency knew about Säpo’s suspicions during his years there.
– I would work as usual and the business would function as usual, no suspicions could be raised that this preliminary investigation was ongoing, she says in her first on-camera interview.
The brothers have denied wrongdoing.
In a mini-documentary, cold facts have searched the brothers’ past lives for clues to what happened. The entire documentary can be seen on TV4 Play.