Swedish appeals court fines ex-national security adviser for gross negligence

​A Swedish appeals court on Monday ​found former national security ‌adviser ​Henrik Landerholm, a friend of the prime minister, guilty of mishandling secret information, overturning a lower court ruling.

The ‌case, involving documents left at a hotel in 2023, has embarrassed Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson as it unfolded against the backdrop of a deepening security crisis ‌in the Baltic Sea region following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Kristersson submitted ‌his resignation after his right-wing government lost its parliamentary majority in a general election in September, but he is leading a caretaker government while a new government is being formed.

Last year, ⁠a ​district court found ⁠Landerholm not guilty, saying he had been negligent, but not gravely. "Unlike the district court ... the ⁠court of appeal finds that the man disclosed the information contained in the documents through ​gross negligence," the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm said in a ⁠statement.

"The only reasonable explanation for the man having left the documents behind is that he was ⁠quite ​careless when emptying the safe-deposit box where he had kept them," it said. The appeals court fined Landerholm, Sweden's first national security adviser, 52,000 ⁠Swedish crowns ($5,247).

Landerholm said in a post on social media X that he was disappointed ⁠and would ⁠discuss the question of "further process" with his lawyer. Landerholm stepped down in January 2025 after the investigations began.

($1 = 9.9106 Swedish crowns)