Sweden’s Svea Court of Appeal convicted former national security adviser Henrik Landerholm on Oct. 19 of disclosing secret information through gross negligence, overturning his acquittal over documents left at a hotel.
The court imposed a fine. Reuters reported the amount as 52,000 Swedish kronor ($5,247). Landerholm, Sweden’s first national security adviser, stepped down in January 2025 after investigations began, Reuters reported.
During a 2023 visit to a hotel and conference center, Landerholm put the documents in a safe and left without retrieving them. They were later found at the venue.
Attunda District Court acquitted him in September 2025. It found that people without authorization had access to the documents when they were discovered, which counted as disclosure under the law. The district court said there was no proof anyone had read them and ruled that Landerholm’s conduct did not amount to gross negligence.
The appeals court reached the opposite conclusion. It cited the care required in Landerholm’s senior positions and his own account that those roles had accustomed him to handling secret information. The court found that his failure to retrieve the documents met the threshold for gross negligence.
