Scandal at top of Swedish police

The director of the Stockholm police, Mats Löfving, was transferred to other functions after the opening of a preliminary investigation for “serious fault”.

by Anne-Françoise Hiver (Malmö (Sweden), regional correspondent)

The intelligence director with the Operational Unit (NOA) of the Swedish police, hidden behind a tree, to unmask her superior spying, while she jogs. The scene could lend to smile, if it did not imply the highest leaders of Swedish police in a case that has been shaking the Scandinavian kingdom for a week, against the backdrop of harassment and suspicion of favoritism.

Tuesday, December 13, the scandal made the “one” of all the media in Sweden. The day before, the vice-prosecutor of the special chamber of the Stockholm prosecution announced the opening of a preliminary investigation for “serious fault” targeting the former chief of the operational unit, Mats Löfving, today at the head of the Stockholm police, transferred to other functions.

The situation had become untenable, after a series of revelations that threw discredit on the institution. In a first article published on December 5, the Tabloid Expressen affirmed that a complaint had been filed against Mr. Löfving, in December 2021, by the chief of police security, Ari Stenman, for “blatant violation of peace, illegal persecution, modesty attack and assault. ” According to the newspaper, the alleged victim was Noa’s intelligence head, Linda Staaf, appointed to this position by Mr. Löfving in 2015.

suspicions of favoritism

Now not only M Me staaf has never been informed of the filing of this complaint, classified without follow -up by the prosecutor. But Expressen revealed on Friday that the director of the General Inspectorate of the Police had already seized justice a year earlier in 2020, for similar facts. A police official, friend of M me staaf, had contacted her, to complain about Mr. Löfving’s behavior, before retracting.

Linda Staaf assures that she had never had the feeling of having been the victim of a criminal act, even if she feared for “[her] security”. In recent years, Mr. Löfving, with whom she admitted to having had a “superficial” affair after her appointment, would have gotten into the habit of appearing in the places she frequented: the bakery, the swimming pool, but also the track of sport where she does the exercise.

Now the case took a new turn over the weekend, when suspicion of favoritism emerged. The media noted that in addition to having been recruited to a chef’s position, without going through the National School of Police, M Me staaf had benefited from an increase in wages, Quite quickly after his appointment, and had been granted a service weapon, in violation of the directives.

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/Media reports cited above.