Ericsson employees charged with spying - literally come in from the cold

In a move that could almost be straight from the pages of a John Le Carre novel, Swedish police have charged three Ericsson employees on spying charges. The allegation is that they had been passing on sensitive information to a foreign power.

Ericsson claims its operations have not been badly compromised. Around 2,000 of the equipment company's staff work in defence-related areas.

The foreign power in question has not been named. All three of the charged individuals are thought to be Swedish nationals.

In a statement issued yesterday, Swedish police said: "The ringleader is suspected of passing secret documents of a Swedish company to a foreign intelligence service for some time."

Cases of genuine espionage are relatively rare. In 1997 Russia brought similar charges against a Qualcomm technician, who was eventually allowed to return to the US.