Henrik Landerholm is charged with negligence with secret information after leaving classified documents at a conference center.
This concerns four documents that he took with him to the conference center after a meeting in Stockholm on March 13, 2023.
The meeting was, according to Dagens Nyheter, a secret conversation between Landerholm and the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, right in the middle of Sweden's sensitive NATO process.
According to DN, the documents were based on security-classified information from Säpo and the defense. A disclosure of the information could harm the country's defense or "endanger Sweden's security", the newspaper writes with reference to a memo from the Military Intelligence and Security Service.
Sweden's security
The prosecutors believe that Landerholm, due to gross negligence, has disclosed information that concerns matters of a secret nature, which may cause harm to Sweden's security.
This is something that the former security adviser denies.
We deny everything. I claim that he has not acted negligently in the way required, said his lawyer Johan Eriksson on Friday when the trial started with an interrogation.
The lawyer also claims that the information itself does not pose any threat to the kingdom's security as the prosecutors believe.
When the main hearing begins today in Attunda district court, Landerholm himself will be heard. But much will, at the request of the prosecutors, be kept behind closed doors. This includes, among other things, parts of the interrogation with Landerholm, but also interrogations with senior officials at the Government Offices and a person with a secret identity at the Defense Forces.
"Dismissed"
The penalty for negligence with secret information ranges from fines to imprisonment for up to one year.
Henrik Landerholm denies the crime categorically.
I would have liked the prosecutor to have dropped the preliminary investigation and come to the conclusion that no charges should be brought. That would have been the natural thing to do, considering the content of the preliminary investigation, said Landerholm outside the courtroom on Friday.
He resigned from his post in January this year, when the criminal investigation began.
The forgotten documents were in the wrong hands for a few days. After the Government Offices retrieved them, they later disappeared without a trace. However, Säpo has secured copies of three of them. These are completely masked in the preliminary investigation.
The trial is scheduled to last for three days. The prosecutors have announced that they will comment only when the verdict is delivered.
