Sweden jails consultant over spying for Russia

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish tech consultant was handed three years in jail on Wednesday for selling sensitive information about truckmaker Scania to Russia, the district court said. Prosecutors said the 47-year-old man’s actions could have compromised Sweden’s national security.

It was the first espionage trial in the country in 18 years, according to broadcaster SVT. The man was arrested in February 2019 while dining at a restaurant in central Stockholm with a Russian diplomat suspected of being an intelligence officer. The diplomat was briefly detained but released because of his diplomatic immunity.

At the time of his arrest, the consultant had just received 27,800 kronor ($3,200, 2,700 euros) for passing information to Moscow, prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in February. The court found he had copied "secret information" from Scania, which he had transferred to USB-drives and handed to a Russian embassy worker.