After a turbulent week for intelligence chief Linda Staafs, where her relationship with police chief Mats Löfving was revealed and her credentials were openly questioned in the media, she is now fighting back against the accusations.
- It's a smear campaign against me as a woman and a manager in the police.
Facts are withheld and distorted, she tells Dagens Nyheter.
She believes that it is about the fact that many men cannot handle a woman gaining power and influence in a male-dominated industry.
Merits and relationship with the police chief are questioned after reporting
It was Expressen that revealed the relationship between the police chiefs Mats Löfving and Linda Staaf, after taking part in a report from 2020 and 2021 against Mats Löfving.
The report was about gross breach of peace, unlawful persecution and molestation of Linda Staaf.
However, the whistleblower was not Linda Staaf herself, but the police's head of security and the head of the police's department for special investigations.
Both times the reports were dismissed without Staaf's knowledge, but now both Staaf's credentials and relationship with police chief Mats Löfving are being questioned.
To DN, Staaf says that Mats Löfving did nothing illegal to her, but that he has behaved "disrespectfully".