STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The Swedish Academy named two new members on Friday as part of efforts to rebuild the scandal-hit institution and ensure it can return to its function of selecting the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For the first time in decades, this year's line-up of Nobel prizes does not feature a literature award after a rape scandal saw a string of members resign or withdraw from the Academy's work in protest, leaving it unable to decide on a winner.

The Academy said in a statement it had appointed Eric Runesson, a Swedish supreme court judge, and Iranian-born novelist and poet Jila Mossaed as new members.

There had been calls for the resignation of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, who is married to the man at the centre of the scandal, but the issue was not mentioned in the statement.

Her husband Jean-Claude Arnault was sentenced to two years in prison for rape on Monday. He has denied all allegations against him and is appealing the verdict.

The head of the Nobel Foundation told Reuters last week it could drop the Academy from awarding the literature prize if it did not make further changes in the wake of the scandal.

The Academy's handling of the row prompted two of its 18 members to resign and several others to cease taking part in the Academy's work, including Frostenson.

With the headcount falling as low as 10 and statutes demanding at least 12 for important votes, such as for electing new members, some of those who have ceased working at the Academy agreed to take part in the vote to fill vacant seats.

It remains short six working members, though only two of them have formally resigned.

(Reporting by Daniel Dickson; editing by Niklas Pollard)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</s>On Friday, The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, announced an Iranian-born poet and a judge as new members as it seeks to recover from a #MeToo scandal that forced it to postpone this year’s literature Nobel.

Eight of its total 18 members have either resigned or are on hiatus due to a deep rift within the academy on how to manage its long-standing ties to a Frenchman recently convicted of rape.

For the first time in 70 years, it postponed this year’s literature prize by a year while it attempts to sort out its problems.

The election of Jila Mossaed, a Tehran-born poet who writes in Swedish and Persian, and Swedish supreme court judge Eric Runesson, brings the Academy’s active members to a quorum of 12.

Members have traditionally been elected for life, but with several members no longer actively participating, and to ensure the venerable body’s survival, its patron, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, changed its statutes to make it possible for members to resign and be replaced.

“The election of two new members is positive. I hope The Swedish Academy will be given the opportunity to continue rebuilding the trust of the institution and that the academy can now continue its important work,” the king said in a statement.

“My words were not appreciated in my old home country, but my new nation is offering me one of the best literary positions because of what I write,” Mossaed, who’s been living in exile Sweden since 1986, told TT news agency. She replaces Swedish author Kerstin Ekman, who ended her involvement with the academy in 1989 over its refusal to condemn a fatwa issued by Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini against author Salman Rushdie over his novel The Satanic Verses.

Meanwhile, Runesson, who also worked as a professor at Lund University, jokingly referred to himself as an “ignorant hellion” compared to his other academy colleagues.

Author and member Peter Englund told TT news agency, “This is about two people with strong integrity, who, with their different backgrounds, knowledge, and competence, complete the academy in a welcome and interesting fashion.”</s>The following content is sourced from external partners. We cannot guarantee that it is suitable for the visually or hearing impaired.

This content was published on October 5, 2018 2:24 PM

Swedish lawyer Eric M. Runesson has been elected as a new member of the Swedish Academy, in Stockholm, Sweden, October 5, 2018. Janerik Henriksson/TT News Agency/via REUTERS

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Swedish Academy named two new members on Friday as part of efforts to rebuild the scandal-hit institution and ensure it can return to its function of selecting the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For the first time in decades, this year's line-up of Nobel prizes does not feature a literature award after a rape scandal saw a string of members resign or withdraw from the Academy's work in protest, leaving it unable to decide on a winner.

The Academy said in a statement it had appointed Eric Runesson, a Swedish supreme court judge, and Iranian-born novelist and poet Jila Mossaed as new members.

There had been calls for the resignation of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, who is married to the man at the centre of the scandal, but the issue was not mentioned in the statement.

Her husband Jean-Claude Arnault was sentenced to two years in prison for rape on Monday. He has denied all allegations against him and is appealing the verdict. [nL8N1WH2IO]

The head of the Nobel Foundation told Reuters last week it could drop the Academy from awarding the literature prize if it did not make further changes in the wake of the scandal. [nL4N1WE56B]

The Academy's handling of the row prompted two of its 18 members to resign and several others to cease taking part in the Academy's work, including Frostenson.

With the headcount falling as low as 10 and statutes demanding at least 12 for important votes, such as for electing new members, some of those who have ceased working at the Academy agreed to take part in the vote to fill vacant seats.

It remains short six working members, though only two of them have formally resigned.</s>The Swedish Academy voted on Thursday to induct laywer Eric M Runesson and writer Jila Mossaed as new members of the two-century-old cultural institution, which hands out the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Runesson, a business lawyer, got his Bachelor degree at Stockholm University and his Master of Laws at Harvard Law School. He is a docent at the Stockholm School of Economics, an arbitrator for the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes and judge on Sweden's Supreme Court.

Mossead, from Teheran, is an award-winning poet who came to Sweden in 1986. She has published two novels and six poetry collections in Persian and seven poetry collections in Swedish.

The pair will join the Academy on its annual meeting on December 20th.

They replace Lotta Lotass, who left the institution in 2015 and Kerstin Ekman who quit in 1989 after fellow members refused to issue a statement condemning the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

Until recently, membership has been considered a lifetime honour. However, following a series of mass resignations earlier this year, the statutes were changed to allow members to leave and be replaced.

Another six chairs are currently empty, with some members having left permanently and some taking a hiatus after the Academy failed to agree on how to handle rape allegations against Jean Claude Arnault – an influential figure on Stockhom's cultural scene with close links to several Academy members.
• Frenchman at centre of Swedish Academy scandal sentenced for rape
• Let's talk about the Swedish Academy's rapid descent into farce

In ruins and without a quorum to make key decisions, the Academy postponed this year's Nobel Literature Prize, a first in 70 years, saying it would instead hand out two Nobel Prizes next year.

However, the head of the Nobel Foundation warned in an interview that if the Academy does not take radical steps to rectify the scandal, responsibility for the prize may be handed to another organization.</s>Swedish members of parliament will be given a 1,500 kronor pay rise this year, with salaries raised to 66,900 kronor ($7,350) a month starting November 1st, the parliament's salary department announced.

The wage hike is based on overall wage fluctuations in the Swedish labour market in 2018.

"We look at the National Mediation Office's statistics on wage setting, the National Institute of Economic Research's reports and the Swedish Central Bank's reports, and at salary trends over the course of the year," Johan Hirschfeldt, head of the parliament's salary department, told Swedish newswire TT.

The pay rise of around 2.3 percent is smaller than last year's 1,600 kronor.

Swedish politicians still earn less than many of their European counterparts. Members of Germany's Bundestag receive around €9,500 every month (approximately 99,000 kronor or $11,000) and the basic salary for an MP in the UK is more than £6,400 a month (approximately 75,000 kronor or $8,300).

Sweden's 349 newly-elected MPs started their term in office last month after the September 9th election.</s>COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Three members who quit the prestigious body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature amid a scandal and internal feud are returning to the Swedish Academy, saying differences with a member are of less importance than the academy itself, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Svenska Dagbladet daily says former Academy permanent secretary Sara Danius, Kjell Espmark and Peter Englund will rejoin the secretive 18-member body. They were among seven Academy members who stepped down as a sex-abuse and financial crimes scandal engulfed the body. In May the academy announced that no prize will be awarded this year.

Espmark told the daily “we are ready to help out” with electing new board members, but did not elaborate.

In June, Swedish prosecutors charged the man at the center of the scandal with two counts of rape of a woman in 2011. Jean-Claude Arnault, a Swedish cultural figure and husband of Academy member Katarina Frostenson, has denied the allegations. Frostenson quit in April, at the same time as Danius.

The trio had said they would be willing to return if fellow member Horace Engdahl, a suppoerter of Arnault who had labelled them a “clique of sore losers,” left the body.

Espmark was quoted as saying that they had reversed their stance because “we have to ask ourselves the question: what is most important, the well-being of the Academy or the personal issue?”

He told Swedish news agency TT that “our loyalty lies with the Academy.”

Many in the Scandinavian nation, known for promoting gender equality, have expressed dismay over the scandal, which has exposed bitter divisions within the academy and given rise to accusations of patriarchal leanings among some members.

A protest that grew out of what began as Sweden’s own #MeToo moment in November hit the academy when 18 women came forward in a Swedish newspaper with accusations against Arnault.

In April, the Swedish Academy said an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations found that “unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy” has taken place within the ranks of the prestigious institution.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Two former members of the prestigious body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature who quit in the wake of a sex abuse and financial crimes scandal have dismissed reports they were returning to the Swedish Academy.

Former permanent secretary Sara Danius wrote on her Facebook page Friday that “presently, I have no such plans.” She said a report from Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, “was erroneous.”

Peter Englund, another board member who quit in April, told Sweden’s news agency TT that “currently I have no plans to return to work” at the Swedish Academy.

“However, I wish to play a constructive role in the rebuilding of this institution. This means I possibly will vote in the current election of new members,” he added.

Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden’s largest dailies and traditionally well-informed on the academy and its members, reported Thursday that Danius, Englund and Kjell Espmark will rejoin the secretive 18-member body whose members are appointed for life.

They were among seven board members who stepped down in April after scandal engulfed the body. According to academy statutes, new members can only be elected if there are 12 board members present.

In May, the academy announced that no prize will be awarded this year.

Jean-Claude Arnault, a Swedish cultural figure, was charged in June with two counts of rape of a woman in 2011. The husband of academy member Katarina Frostenson, Arnault has denied the allegations. Frostenson quit in April at the same time as Danius.

Danius, Espmark and Englund earlier had said they would be willing to return if fellow member Horace Engdahl, a supporter of Arnault who had labelled them a “clique of sore losers,” left the body.

Svenska Dagbladet on Thursday quoted Espmark as saying that they had reversed their stance because “we have to ask ourselves the question: what is most important — the well-being of the academy or a personal issue?”

He told the TT news agency that “our loyalty lies with the academy.”

Many in the Scandinavian nation, known for promoting gender equality, have expressed dismay over the scandal, which has exposed bitter divisions within the academy and given rise to accusations of patriarchal leanings among some members.

A protest that grew out of what began as Sweden’s own #MeToo moment in November hit the academy when 18 women came forward in a Swedish newspaper with accusations against Arnault.

In April, the Swedish Academy said an internal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations found that “unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy” has taken place within the ranks of the prestigious institution.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Jean-Claude Arnault, the man at the centre of a scandal that rocked the academy which awards the Nobel Prize for literature, has appealed against a conviction for rape that grew out of the scandal, media reported on Thursday.

The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported that Arnault’s lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, had filed the appeal late on Wednesday. Hurtig told Reuters he had no comment.

A Swedish court found Arnault, 72, guilty of rape and sentenced him to two years in jail.

Arnault, who is the husband of poet and Academy member Katarina Frostenson, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape in a district court in Stockholm. The court acquitted him on one count.

At least 18 women levelled accusations of sexual assault and harassment against Arnault, a photographer and well-known cultural figure in Sweden.

The charges against Arnault prompted several members of the Academy to quit and forced it to cancel this year’s literature prize.
The Swedish Academy names two new members: Swedish supreme court justice Eric Runesson, and Swedish-Iranian writer and poet Jila Mossaed.