Two people have been detained in the Stockholm region for “heavy illegal intelligence activities” against Sweden, Swedish authorities said on Tuesday, while local media reported that the suspects are a couple of Russian descent.
“One of the arrested persons is suspected of serious illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and of serious intelligence activities against a foreign power. The other person is suspected of complicity”Sweden’s secret services, known by its Swedish acronym SAPO, stressed in a statement.
The press release also states that a third person has been questioned.
According to court documents obtained by the France-Presse (AFP) agency, the prosecution estimates that intelligence information gathering began in January 2013 in the Stockholm area.
SAPO, on the other hand, indicated that the investigation leading to the arrests had been ongoing for “some time”, but without adding any information about the identity of the suspects, the countries involved in the intelligence activities or the nature of the information collected.
According to the newspaper Aftonbladet, the detainees are a Russian couple in their 70s, owners of an electronic components company.
The couple were arrested early Tuesday in a residential area of Stockholm where they live, he added.
According to this Swedish newspaper, this would be the man suspected of spying on behalf of Russia.
“They are ordinary people that we occasionally greet”emphasized a neighbor of the Aftonbladet.
The Swedish authorities stressed that these arrests are “unrelated to any other cases currently being investigated by the intelligence services”.
In November, the prosecution had already charged two Swedish brothers with “heavy espionage” on behalf of the General Directorate of the Russian Intelligence Service (GRU) between 2011 and 2021.
Their trial begins this week.
Source: DN
