Sweden Expels 5 Czechs as Spies--4 Are Diplomats
Sweden today ordered five Czechoslovaks, including four diplomats, out of the country for alleged spying activities.
A Foreign Ministry statement gave no indication of the activities of the Czechs, but the Stockholm newspaper Expressen said they had been involved in military spying and industrial espionage directed against military and high-technology targets.
The ministry said there had been no damage to national security.
Sweden, a neutral country, has an extensive arms industry whose specialties include guns and artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and jet aircraft.
Expressen said the Czechoslovaks had hired Swedes as agents and forced them to deliver secret material. But it said some of the Swedes worked as double agents, providing information to the Swedish Security Police.
The government did not identify the five, but Expressen said they were Jan Kroupa, 42, embassy first secretary; Lt. Col. Jan Sovjak, 35, a military attache; Lubomir Kopaj, 30, press attache, and Ludvik Vanhara, 42, a trade attache.
It identified the fifth man as Pavel Scherzl, a 33-year old representative of the Czech airline CSA.
The Czech Embassy has only 10 accredited diplomats in Sweden. Sovjak and Kroupa were the third- and fourth-highest ranking envoys at the embassy.
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