Swedish justice on Thursday sentenced a man to life imprisonment, while his brother was sentenced to nine years and 10 months for spying for Russia and its military intelligence agency GRU, for ten years.
The court ruled that the two men, who were born in Iran, acted to profit from the activity.
This case has been described as the biggest espionage scandal in recent Swedish history, a sign of Russian espionage infiltrating the heart of Swedish intelligence.
“The brothers, in a joint and coordinated manner, without authorization and for the purpose of serving Russia and the GRU, obtained, passed on and disseminated information, the disclosure of which to a foreign power could harm the security of Sweden”defended the court.
The older brother, Peyman Kia, 42, a former Swedish intelligence agent, was on trial for collecting classified information, which the younger brother handed over to the GRU between 2011 and 2021.
During this period, the main defendant served in the Swedish security forces, Säpo, and in the military intelligence service.
The target of a discreet counterintelligence investigation since 2017, the two men were held separately in September and November 2021.
Peyman Kia “have committed an act of espionage falling under the most serious categories (…) involving matters of the highest importance”judge Måns Wigén underlined when pronouncing the life sentence.
His 35-year-old brother, Payam Kia, was charged with helping him pass on that classified information and was sentenced to nine years and ten months in prison.
Shortly before his arrest, Payam Kia had destroyed a hard drive that was later found in a garbage can.
According to Swedish justice, the older brother has appropriated about 90 confidential documents – traces of which were found on his PC. According to the verdict, at least half of the information will have been passed on to Russia.
The court held that, despite “some pieces missing”, the prosecution had established “a great puzzle” of evidence, “clear enough to find the defendants guilty”.
Most of the trial, which lasted nearly a month at the end of 2022, was held behind closed doors for reasons of national security.
The two men, who come from a family of Iranian descent, have denied the allegations and, according to their lawyers, plan to appeal the verdict.
This process coincided with another spectacular case of alleged espionage for Russia, with the arrest of a Russian couple in a village on the outskirts of Stockholm in late November.
This couple is accused of acting as Moscow agents after moving to Sweden in the late 1990s.
The man was placed in pretrial detention at the end of November for “illegal intelligence activities”, while his partner suspected of complicity was released, although the investigation into her continues.
In September 2021, a Swedish technology consultant was also convicted of selling confidential information about Swedish truck manufacturer Scania to Russia.
Source: DN
