STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s security service has detained a Swedish diplomat on suspicion of espionage, Swedish public television SVT reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified sources.
The security service (SAPO) said it had detained a person on suspicion of spying after an operation in the Stockholm area in the last few days, but declined to give further information.
“It is correct that we have a case where the suspicion is spying,” SAPO spokesperson Karin Lutz told Reuters. “One person has been taken into custody.”
SVT said the suspect had been posted at a number of embassies around the world and that the case was being handled by the national security unit at the Swedish Prosecution Authority.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told SVT the government had been informed and that the person in custody was suspected “on reasonable grounds” of espionage. Reasonable grounds is the lower of two grades of suspicion in Sweden.
“The investigation has to be carried out and I don’t want to preempt it,” Strommer said in a statement to SVT.
Anton Strand, the lawyer appointed to defend the person in custody, declined to comment.
Swedish authorities have fretted in recent years about increasing threats from both foreign powers like Russia, China and Iran and groups engaging in actions ranging from violent attacks and hybrid warfare to corporate espionage.
SAPO in March this year warned that foreign powers are operating in ways that threaten security, using hybrid activities to destabilise Sweden and Europe.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson, editing by Terje Solsvik, Editing by William Maclean)
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