An appeal and a personal letter to Sweden’s highest court did not succeed.
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The 54-year-old Norwegian was convicted in June to one year and eight months imprisonment for tax evasion and bookkeeping violations.
When the verdict fell in the Court of Appeal, corresponding to the Court of Appeal in Norway, Søgaard’s lawyer Staffan Bergqvist announced that it would be appealed. He believed that the Court of Appeal had misjudged the evidence.
Søgaard has always denied having committed financial crime, and did not plead guilty in the case.
According to Expressen The Supreme Court – Sweden’s Supreme Court – has now rejected the appeal.
Thus, the prison sentence remains. Søgaard is also banned from doing business in Sweden, and must pay 800 kroner to the Crime Victims’ Fund.
– He is surprised and disappointed, says lawyer Bergqvist to Expressen.
The lawyer elaborates that he himself is surprised that the Supreme Court does not take the case, because he believes there is no relevant practice for the case’s issues.
Søgaard: Feels judged as a person
– I am quite shocked, says Søgaard to VG.
– There is something sick about the Swedish legal system, he believes, and refers to a post posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday night, where he sharply criticizes the development in Swedish society, and warns that he will invest politically in the future – with goals to get a seat in the Storting in Sweden in 2026.
Søgaard makes it clear that he feels judged as a person, and not on a case.
“A person who is openly critical of the policy pursued, with the marginalization and demonization of ordinary people it has had as a consequence, should be hunted down and wiped out,” he writes.
“My real crime: I am Runar Søgaard, a loud, Christian opponent of what is happening in our increasingly centralized society,” he further reports in the post.
He included similar statements in a personal letter he sent to the Swedish Supreme Court together with the appeal.
According to Aftonbladet Søgaard wrote in the letter that he as a Christian has always made high moral demands on himself.
«So also in this case. Therefore, I can not see that I have committed any criminal act, as far as my knowledge of the law extends. “
Should have stopped posting income
Søgaard was first convicted in a Swedish district court in 2019, for several cases of serious bookkeeping offenses and tax offenses.
The district court then ruled that Søgaard had not booked income of several million. At the same time, he was acquitted of forgery.
According to the indictment, which came in 2017, Søgaard and a relative have failed to book more than ten million Swedish kroner in the financial years 2013–2016 – as well as income of around 390,000 kroner in parts of the period. In addition, the two defendants have not reported over 950,000 Swedish kroner to the tax authorities in the same period.
Søgaard has according to Expressen earlier stated that he is not the actual owner of the company, and that he has thus not been responsible for the accounting.
In 2015, Søgaard was also sentenced to prison for financial crime. He was sentenced to two months in prison and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Søgaard lives in Sweden. He became famous when he married the Swedish artist Carola Häggkvist. They separated in 2000.
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