A court has convicted a former employee of the Swedish migration agency and the foreign ministry of misconduct after issuing bogus visas to Afghan nationals while working at the Swedish embassy in Pakistan.
The unnamed man was found to have approved 120 incorrect visas for Afghan nationals to work in Sweden, the authorisation of 61 of those immigration documents resulting in the conviction for misconduct.
The former official was stationed at the Swedish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and came under suspicion in 2019 after authorities suspected he might be linked to people smuggling activity, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
According to the broadcaster, prosecutors brought representatives of major Swedish corporations such as the telecommunications giant Ericsson into court to testify that many claimed waiting jobs and offers of employment used to procure the visas were forged.
Prosecutors could not obtain enough evidence to bring charges of people smuggling and charged him with gross misconduct. However, the former Swedish government employee was acquitted of gross misconduct and found guilty of misconduct in the ordinary degree.
While prosecutors stated the man “repeatedly, seriously abused his position” and accused him of posing a risk to aiding illegal immigration into the European Union’s Schengen free-movement area, the judge in the case sentenced the man to probation and daily fines for 80 days.
Prosecutor Arne Fors had stated last year she was seeking a prison sentence. However, the court argued that as the man had lost his job, had little prospect to gain similar employment, and the police investigation had lasted two years, the man’s six-month sentence should be suspended.
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