STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s highest court on Thursday upheld the life sentence for the eldest of two Iranian-born Swedish brothers for spying for Russia and its military intelligence service GRU for a decade.
Peyman Kia, a naturalized Swede, was sentenced to life in January in one of the Scandinavian country’s biggest espionage cases in decades. His brother, Payam Kia, was given nine years and 10 months. They were found guilty for having worked jointly to pass information to Russia between Sept. 28, 2011, and Sept. 20, 2021.
At first, both brothers appealed the Jan. 19 sentences by the Stockholm District Court. But Payam Kia retracted his appeal last week, hours before the appeals verdict was scheduled to be announced. His lawyer, Björn Sandin, explained to Swedish broadcaster SVT that his client feared getting a higher sentence.
Thursday’s verdict by the Supreme Court was postponed a week because of that. As before, proceedings were held behind closed doors most of the time because of the sensitivity of the information.
The Supreme Court said “it has been proven that the older brother procured, promoted and disclosed (information) to the Russian intelligence service GRU.”
Between 2014 and 2015, Peyman Kia worked for Sweden’s domestic intelligence agency as well as for the country’s armed forces. Swedish prosecutors alleged that the data the brothers gave the Russians originated from several authorities within the Swedish security and intelligence service, known by its acronym SAPO.
Peyman Kia, who was arrested in September 2021, reportedly also worked for the armed forces’ defense intelligence agency. He was involved with a top secret unit within the agency that dealt with Swedish spies abroad, according to media in Sweden.
His brother was arrested in November 2021.
The case has been compared to one of Sweden’s largest spy scandals which took place during the Cold War when Stig Bergling, a Swedish security officer who worked for both SAPO and the armed forces, sold secrets to the Soviet Union. He was sentenced in 1979 to life imprisonment on similar charges and later escaped while serving his time and returned voluntarily to Sweden in 1994. He died in his native country in January 2015.
Swedish appeals court upholds life sentence in Russia espionage case
https://arab.news/6spd3
Swedish appeals court upholds life sentence in Russia espionage case
- Peyman Kia, a naturalized Swede, was sentenced to life in January in one of the Scandinavian country’s biggest espionage cases in decades
- His brother, Payam Kia, was given nine years and 10 months
Blair pressured UK officials over case against soldiers implicated in death of Iraqi
- Newly released files suggest ex-PM took steps to ensure cases were not heard in civilian court
- Baha Mousa died in British custody in 2003 after numerous assaults by soldiers over 36 hours
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair pressured officials not to let British soldiers be tried in civil courts on charges related to the death of an Iraqi man in 2003, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Baha Mousa died in British Army custody in Basra during the Iraq War, having been repeatedly assaulted by soldiers over a 36-hour period.
Newly released files show that in 2005 Antony Phillipson, Blair’s private secretary for foreign affairs, had written to the prime minister saying the soldiers involved would be court-martialed, but “if the (attorney general) felt that the case were better dealt with in a civil court he could direct accordingly.”
The memo sent to Blair was included in a series of files released to the National Archives in London this week. At the top of the memo, he wrote: “It must not (happen)!”
In other released files, Phillipson told Blair that the attorney general and Ministry of Defence could give details on changes to the law they were proposing at the time so as to avoid claims that British soldiers could not operate in a war zone for fear of prosecution.
In response, Blair said: “We have, in effect, to be in a position where (the) ICC (International Criminal Court) is not involved and neither is CPS (Crown Prosecution Service). That is essential. This has been woefully handled by the MoD.”
In 2005, Cpl Donald Payne was court-martialed, jailed for a year and dismissed from the army for his role in mistreating prisoners in custody, one of whom had been Mousa.
Payne repeatedly assaulted, restrained and hooded detainees, including as part of what he called “the choir,” a process by which he would kick and punch prisoners at intervals so that they made noise he called “music.”
He became the first British soldier convicted of war crimes, admitting to inhumanely treating civilians in violation of the 2001 International Criminal Court Act.
