caption serviceyears branch death_place death_date birth_place allegiance birth_date rank image article_title name
stig wennerström , c. 1960 1929-1963 swedish air force danderyd , sweden march 22 , 2006 stockholm , sweden sweden , soviet union -lrb- spy -rrb- august 22 , 1906 colonel stig.wennerstrom.jpg stig wennerström -lrb- spy -rrb-
 stig wennerström
stig wennerström -lrb- spy -rrb-

stig erik constans wennerström -lrb- august 22 , 1906 -- march 22 , 2006 -rrb- was a colonel in the swedish air force who was convicted of treason in 1964 .
during the 1950s , he leaked the swedish air defence plans and the entire saab `` draken '' fighter jet project to the soviet union .
he also worked as a military attaché in washington , dc , where he was very useful to the russian military intelligence agency , the gru .
he also served in the same role in moscow .
as early as 1943 , sÄpo , the swedish security service , suspected that wennerström was working for germany and in 1947 there were indications that he had connections with the soviet union , but the suspicions could n't be proved .
the counter-intelligence operation centred on him was intensified towards the end of the 1950s and his household maid was recruited by sÄpo .
in june 1963 the maid reported that she had found some film rolls hidden in the attic .
the films contained pictures of secret documents and wennerström was arrested a few weeks later .
wennerström was initially sentenced to life in prison , but in 1972 the swedish government changed the sentence to 20 years , despite the supreme commander , general stig synnergren , still considering him to be a high security risk .
he was paroled in 1974 after serving a total of 10 years ; the norm in sweden at the time was to release prisoners after they had served half their sentences .
