Sweden’s former national security adviser was on Friday acquitted of gross negligence for leaving classified documents unlocked at a Stockholm hotel, which prosecutors had argued jeopardised state security.
Sweden’s former national security adviser was on Friday acquitted of gross negligence for leaving classified documents unlocked at a Stockholm hotel, which prosecutors had argued jeopardised state security.
Sweden’s former national security adviser was on Friday acquitted of gross negligence for leaving classified documents unlocked at a Stockholm hotel, which prosecutors had argued jeopardised state security.
Henrik Landerholm, a close friend of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson who was hand-picked for the role, resigned in January after leaving the documents in a locker in his hotel room in March 2023.
The Attunda district court agreed largely with the prosecution’s arguments, ruling that Landerholm had “been negligent” and the documents could have endangered national security “if they had fallen into the hands of a foreign power”.
But judge Lennart Christianson said the court acquitted Landerholm because the prosecution had failed to prove “gross negligence”.
Landerholm’s actions were not a matter of “deliberate risk-taking or other aggravating circumstances”, Christianson said.
The court found no evidence that “anyone has accessed the content of the documents”, but “considers that the information has been disclosed because individuals at the conference centre, who were not authorised to access the information, gained access to them when they were found in the locker.”
According to the charge sheet and police investigation, the hotel cleaner who found the papers could be “linked to violent extremism circles”.
Landerholm’s lawyers had argued that the information was not considered harmful to national security if it came to light.
Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported in August that at least one of the documents concerned a classified conversation between Landerholm and then-US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan about Sweden’s NATO membership strategy.
Landerholm risked a fine or up to a year in prison if convicted.
During the trial he told the court there was “no excuse” for the incident in the Gällöfsta hotel, adding: “It was unfortunate and inappropriate”.
After the scandal erupted, Swedish media also revealed that Landerholm forgot his cell phone at the Hungarian embassy in December 2022, shortly after he was appointed as adviser.
He also left a notebook behind after a media interview in January 2023.
The 62-year-old has previously worked as an ambassador, director of Sweden’s Psychological Defence Agency, principal of the Swedish Defence University, and chairman of parliament’s defence committee.