Swedish ex-national security adviser cleared in negligence case

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden’s former national security adviser, a childhood friend of the prime minister, was cleared on charges of severe negligence on Friday after he left sensitive documents in an unlocked safe at a hotel, a court said.

Henrik Landerholm was acquitted because, while he had been negligent, he had not been found to be severely negligent, the lead judge said in a statement.

Landerholm was charged in March with allowing the disclosure of information that could have harmed national security. Prosecutors said he had left the documents in the safe in a conference hotel in 2023.

“This is not a question of deliberate risk-taking nor were there aggravating circumstances such that the negligence would be considered severe, which was a prerequisite for a conviction,” the head of the panel of judges, Lennart Christianson, said in a statement.

The case, which embarrassed the prime minister, developed against the backdrop of a deepening security crisis in the Baltic region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

After decades of non-alliance, Sweden joined NATO in 2024 and has been among the most active European nations in supporting Ukraine’s defence through weapons transfers and financial support.

Landerholm, who pleaded not guilty in the trial, stepped down as the government’s national security adviser in January following the launch of investigations.

If he had been found guilty, he could have been sentenced to up to one year in prison.

(Reporting by Simon Johnson, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Andrew Heavens)