Stig Bergling

Stig Svante Eugén Bergling, later Stig Svante Eugén Sandberg and Stig Svante Eugén Sydholt, (1 March 1937 – 24 January 2015) was a Swedish Security Service officer who spied for the Soviet Union. The Stig Bergling-affair, one of Sweden's greatest spy scandals, began when he was arrested in Israel in 1979 by Israeli counterintelligence and in the same year in Sweden was sentenced to life imprisonment for aggravated espionage. He escaped in 1987, with the assistance of his then–wife Elisabeth Sjögren during a conjugal visit, and fled to Moscow. Bergling's escape was a major embarrassment for Sweden's liberal prison system and prompted the resignation of the justice minister.

Bergling lived for several years in the Soviet Union, Hungary and Lebanon until, for health reasons, he voluntarily returned to Sweden in 1994. He continued to serve his sentence until 1997, when he was paroled. During the last years of his life, Bergling lived in a Stockholm nursing home and had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He died there on 24 January 2015, at 77 years old.

Early life Bergling was born on 1 March 1937 in in the City of Stockholm, Sweden. His father, who came from a wealthy home in Sala, was an engineer and worked with general insurance at an insurance company. Bergling's mother, who came from a working class home in Falun, had a strictly religious upbringing and worked as a secretary during Bergling's upbringing. Bergling had a younger sister. He attended , a private school in Östermalm, Stockholm, and then attended Östra Real. In 1957, he did his military service as a coastal ranger at the Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment (KA 1) in Vaxholm. He also became a reserve officer and advanced to the rank of lieutenant in the "Blocking Battalion Bråviken" where Bergling was responsible for security matters. The battalion had – in the event of war – the task to defend the inlet to Oxelösund and its surroundings.

Säpo, Fst/Säk and overseas service In 1958 he began working at Östermalm police station at the same time as . Forsberg was the man who was to become the head of the Swedish counterintelligence and later be one of the men who disclosed Bergling. After some time, Bergling started working within radiopolisen and then the utlänningsroteln ("alien department"). After having worked as a police officer for 10 years, Bergling was employed in 1969 at the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) and worked at the Bureau II, the surveillance unit, the unit engaged in counterintelligence against Soviet Union agents in Sweden. In 1971, Bergling was on temporary leave from Säpo and began working at the Defence Staff's Security Department (Fst/Säk). In his new role as a liaison officer between the Säpo and the Defence Staff, he participated in the work to map the Soviet diplomats' activities in Sweden. Meanwhile, at Fst/Säk, Bergling copied a binder with classified documents. The binder contained the so-called fortification code, or FO code (Fortifikationskoden), the top-secret list of Sweden's defence facilities, coastal artillery fortifications, mobilization stores, command centers and radar stations. He got permission from one of his superiors to obtain a copy of it. When Bergling was later to return it, he became angry with one of his superiors, Bengt Wallroth (later Director-General of the National Defence Radio Establishment) who started arguing and criticizing him. Bergling disliked the Defence Staff and Wallroth and instead of destroying the copy he kept it and put it in a safe deposit box at Erik Dahlbergsgatan in Stockholm. for handing out the fortification code (FO code) – the list of Sweden's defence installations, coastal artillery fortifications and mobilization stores. He was also accused of having handed over the Supreme Commander's war planning of the Soviets – planning on how the Swedish Armed Forces should act at different levels in a war situation. These were documents that had even greater secrecy than the binder that Bergling handed to the Soviets in Beirut.

After the verdict, Bergling was subjected to, for reasons of national security, a very strict solitary confinement. The then government under Minister for Justice Håkan Winberg decided on 10 January 1980 of certain restrictions for Bergling under the penal law (kriminalvårdslagen). Letters to and from Bergling were reviewed by Säpo and were kept. Visits and phone calls could be banned if they were detrimental to national security. Regulations regarding Bergling's treatment in prison was entrusted to the National Prison and Probation Administration to consult with the National Police Board on the application. It was the National Police Board's Security Department that would account for the safety assessment and determine what considerations of national security demanded in the form of restrictions.

Bergling was in solitary confinement for 39 months in Kumla Prison before he ended up in mental health care, first in Karsudden Hospital in Katrineholm and then in Västervik in 1982. They had resumed their acquaintance through correspondence during his prison time. She was at that time care assistant in the home care services in Spånga, divorced with four children.

From Djursholm they made their way further north to Grisslehamn where Ålandsfärjan departed at 09.00. In the suburb area of Tapiola in Espoo, the police found the couple's escape vehicle. It took more than 10 hours before the Swedish authorities issued an official alert for Bergling.

Justice Minister Wickbom was forced to resign after Bergling's escape. Wickbom had claimed that he had not been informed that Bergling had been granted regular conjugal visits and that his escape was a result of a series of mix-ups between the police and the prison service. The information about Bergling's conjugal visit was at the Department of Justice at the time of the escape, though he had not seen it. Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson said he accepted Wickboms departure, but praised his courage in his decision to resign. On 20 October 1987 the Director General of the National Prison and Probation Administration , the State Secretary Harald Fälth, the Information Officer at the Ministry of Justice Björn Fougelberg and the political adviser to the former minister Pär Nuder all resigned.

Time abroad and the return to Sweden Under the alias of Ivar and Elisabeth Straus, they lived in Moscow for a while. From the start, the Soviets did not trust Bergling suspecting him as a Säpo (double) agent. The escape had been too easy and the GRU thought it was prearranged. Again and again Bergling has to show how Elisabeth's house looked like and how they could run away from Säpo. Because of the questions the Soviets asked after they arrived in Moscow, he understood that there would be no intelligence work in for him. Bergling received 500 rubles per month, which was more than most senior Soviet state and party officials earned. He first lived in Jumblatt's home in Moukhtara in the Chouf Mountains before he got his own house. In Lebanon, Bergling got 5,000 dollars every six months, they lived rent free, got cars almost for free and they got pocket money from Jumblatt himself. The day after the couple returned voluntarily to Sweden Bergling spent three years in prison until his release for health reasons on 17 July 1997. The last time at Asptuna Prison he spent in his room because he was ostracised and bullied by other prisoners. On one occasion he was attacked and stabbed by a fellow prisoner who thought he disturbed him when he was cleaning. Bergling received a blow over the ear, but no serious injuries. During the end of the prison term, his then wife became acutely ill with chronic cancer. Bergling did not get to the hospital in time, before she died on their wedding day. In 2008 Bergling pronounced in media his support for the FRA law.

In 1992 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and moved around, at the end of his life, using a wheelchair or a mobility scooter. In 2004 he divorced a Polish woman whom he had been married to twice. Bergling had an adult son which his ex-wife's new husband adopted. The son was adopted when he was a year and a half old. The police investigation was later discontinued and Bergling's airsoft gun, which had been seized by the police, was returned. He was buried on 7 May 2015 at Kungsholms Cemetery in Kungsholmen, Stockholm.

Personal life In his first marriage, Bergling was married 1961–1965 to Marianne Rinman (1941–2009), daughter of diploma engineer Kurt Rinman. In his second marriage, from 1965 to 1973, he was married to Kyllikki Kyyrö (born 1934); in his third, he was married in 1986 to Elisabeth Sjögren (also named Lillemor Geuken and Elisabeth Sandberg) (1940–1997); (born 1955), a native of Poland.

Enemy's Enemy In the novel Enemy's Enemy (1989) by author Jan Guillou, Carl Hamilton gets the task from his clients to go to Moscow and kill the spy Stig Bergling (in the book called Stig Sandström) who has escaped during his conjugal visit, killed his wife and went to Moscow to work for the Russians. The surname Sandström was taken from Sune Sandström, the then head of Säpo. Bergling wasn't murdered or killed his wife, but later returned to Sweden to serve the remainder of his sentence for espionage. In the 2006 edition of Enemy's Enemy, Guillou writes: "One morning he [Bergling] phoned me from Hall Prison and woke me up. He felt that he was entitled to a dedicated copy of the book. I could only agree and wrote truthfully that this is the most remarkable dedication I have ever written. One must say that I got off cheaply."