The man owned and administered a web forum where images and other sensitive information about defense facilities were spread. Now he is acquitted by the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden.
The man was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison by the district court for gross unauthorized handling of confidential information. However, he has denied the crime and claimed that the information on the forum was already known and therefore cannot be considered confidential.
The Court of Appeal now agrees with the man.
A large amount of non-confidential information cannot together become a confidential piece of information, says Court of Appeal President Anders Hagsgård.
At the same time, the Court of Appeal notes that the information could have harmed Sweden if it had fallen into the wrong hands. Therefore, the man will not get back, among other things, computers that were seized.
The information could have been used for criminal purposes, says Anders Hagsgård.
But in this case, there was no intention to harm Sweden, and no one has claimed that.
