A Swedish court said on Thursday it had found a man not guilty of spying on Sweden and the United States on behalf of Russia and unlawfully transferring advanced technology to Russia’s armed forces.
Sergey Skvortsov, a citizen of both Sweden and Russia, had been indicted in August on charges of gross unlawful intelligence activity against the two countries between 2013 and 2022.
According to the indictment Skvortsov’s company was a platform for Russia for illicit technology procurement from the West, circumventing sanctions, with the aim to increase Russia’s military capabilities.
The Stockholm District Court said in a statement it had found that Skvortsov through his business had largely acted as claimed by prosecutors, but that they did not prove that this amounted to espionage.
“Nothing has emerged other than the activity having been solely intended for technology acquisition, and not aimed at obtaining information that could constitute espionage,” it said.
Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.
Source: Reuters
