- Stig Bergling
Stig Svante Eugen Bergling, later Sandberg and Sydholt (born
March 1 1937 inStockholm ,Sweden ) is a former police officer who spied for theSoviet Union .Espionage and conviction
He was employed at SÄPO, the Swedish Security Service, and worked in the surveillance department. Bergling also was an officer in the
military reserves and for a short period he was working at the Defence Staff where he stole secret documents about Swedish military installations.During a UN mission in
Lebanon in 1973, he sold the documents to theGRU . When he came back home, he continued his espionage by delivering information about SÄPO's operations in Sweden. SÄPO soon discovered there was a leak and after some time the suspicions pointed towards Bergling, even if there was no proof. He once again applied for service in the UN but was arrested inIsrael onMarch 20 ,1979 . OnDecember 7 , 1979 he was convicted in Sweden and sentenced to life in prison fortreason .Escape from prison
During the time in prison, he changed his name to "Stig Svante Eugen Sandberg". On October 6, 1987 while on leave from the correctional institution in
Norrköping , Sweden, he and his wife, Elisabeth, managed to escape. FromRinkeby where Elisabeth lived, viaÅland they got toHelsinki ,Finland where Bergling contacted the Soviet Embassy and managed to get help from his old "employer" to live in the Soviet Union. Under the alias of Ivar and Elisabeth Straus, they lived for a while inMoscow , and later inHungary . [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5DF1139F933A25753C1A961948260 Convicted Spy for Russians Sought After Sweden Escape] en icon, "The New York Times ",October 10 1987 ] However, in autumn 1990 they were moved to Lebanon. In August 1994, the couple returned to Sweden voluntarily. Bergling spent three years in prison until his release in July 1997.In the summer of 2006 Bergling joined the Swedish Left Party (former Communist), but he left the Party in September later that same year.
Since the end of the 1990s, Bergling has suffered from
Parkinson's disease .References
Footnotes
See also
*
Stig Wennerström External links
* [http://susning.nu/Stig_Bergling Stig Bergling] at
Susning.nu sv icon
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