Controversy Over Claes Nordmark's 1.3 Million Kronor Severance Amid Conviction

Former Boden municipal councilor Claes Nordmark (S) has been convicted of sexual assault. Despite this, he is set to receive a severance package of 1.3 million kronor, which began disbursement even before the verdict was announced. The Moderates are now planning to appeal this decision.

On Thursday, the district court sentenced the former municipal councilor and chairman of the municipal executive board, Claes Nordmark (S), for sexual assault.

The sentence includes a conditional sentence and 120 hours of community service.

Severance Already Being Paid

When the municipal politician was charged in the spring, he resigned from all his political duties. Shortly after, he applied for his severance package: a transition support totaling 1.3 million kronor.

Last week, the support began to be paid out, reports SVT and NSD. He reportedly received an initial payment of 79,678 kronor according to SVT and 72,151 kronor according to NSD.

Justification for the Decision

Boden municipality states that the verdict does not affect the support.

"The regulations do not address suspicion of crime or a conviction for a crime, which means the personnel department executes the payment of the transition support," writes HR manager Ingela Arngren in an email to TV4.

However, the Moderates in the municipality are critical of this.

According to NSD, the party has contacted SKR to clarify the issue and will now appeal the decision on the severance payments to the administrative court.

Moderates: "An Insult"

M-politician Tobias Sundberg tells both SVT and NSD that the municipal executive board should have discussed the issue before the payments began.

"There must be a decision at the core, the municipal executive board must make a decision before you can start paying millions to an individual. But here, the municipality has essentially just started paying out money without any decision," he tells NSD.

He also calls it "an insult to the victim."

Claes Nordmark was the chairman of the municipal executive board in Boden municipality from 2018 until this spring. During Stefan Löfven's government, he was also a political advisor to the then Minister for Rural Affairs Sven-Erik Bucht (S), and he has also worked as a political secretary in the parliament for Mikael Damberg (S).

Nordmark has consistently denied the crime. Expressen is seeking his lawyer for a comment.