Three people in different parts of the country are charged with gross unauthorized positions with secret information.
One of them is a former defense employee from Östersund, who shared defense secrets on an online forum, reports P4 Jämtland.
The Security Police (Säpo) is tight-lipped about the cases, but states that it concerns three people who were charged on Wednesday and Thursday at the district courts in Östersunds, Sundsvalls and Örebro.
– This is a case in a long line of similar cases, where people have been both prosecuted and sentenced for gross unauthorized positions with secret information, says Säpo’s press spokesperson Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg to TT.
Twelve people
According to P4 Jämtland, a total of twelve people have been put on trial for sharing classified defense information on an internet forum. It is not something Säpo wants to confirm for TT, but Hultgren-Friberg adds:
– This is connected with several other people who have been convicted of the same type of crime. It is about acquiring and distributing material that makes it possible to map military infrastructure.
According to P4, the accused person in Östersund was employed in the Swedish Armed Forces in the early 2000s and some of the material he has shared is said to have been obtained during his employment.
70-year-old was sentenced
Among similar cases in the past year, a case in May this year is notable, when a man in his 50s was charged with the same crime. He was accused of running a database that formed the basis for the exchange of secret information with other people.
The following month, in June, a 70-year-old man was also convicted of gross unauthorized position with a secret task, after secret and sensitive material about 41 military defense facilities was found in the man’s home during a house search.
The man, who is described as interested in military history, is said to have also created an online forum for like-minded people. He was sentenced to a suspended sentence and a daily fine, after the court took his age and health into account.
FACTS Offense against the security of the kingdom
The crimes of espionage and unauthorized position with a secret mission fall under what is known as a crime against Sweden’s security.
Espionage, according to the law, is the intentional transfer, transmission or disclosure of secrets – such as defense matters – to a foreign power. The information, “the disclosure of which to a foreign power could mean but for Sweden’s security”, does not have to be true.
The penalty for espionage of the normal degree is a maximum of six years in prison, while aggravated espionage carries a prison term of between four and eighteen years or life.
If there is no intention to help a foreign power, the crime is instead an unauthorized position with a secret mission.
The penalty scale for such unauthorized holding of the normal rank ranges from fines to imprisonment for a maximum of two years. For serious crimes, the maximum sentence is four years.
You can also be sentenced for negligence with secret information, if the crime has been committed through gross negligence.
Source: Paragraphs 5–9, Chapter 9 of the Criminal Code, Swedish Constitution
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