Norway’s OSLO (AP) Authorities in Norway have reported that a 20-year-old Norwegian student who was employed as a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo was detained on suspicion of espionage for Russia and Iran.
They ordered the man, who has not been named, to be detained for four weeks. According to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, he co-owns a security firm with a dual national of Norway and an unidentified eastern European countries.
Police in Oslo announced on Friday that they will examine the business’s operating license.
The guy was detained in his house garage on Wednesday on suspicion of compromising national security through his intelligence-related activities, according to a statement released Thursday night by Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, PST.
According to NRK, the district court’s arrest order states, among other things, that the police discovered documents of the man’s assignment conversation with a someone who was allegedly directing his espionage activities.
According to NRK, the court decision states that the guy has acknowledged gathering and disclosing information to Iranian and Russian agencies.
PST spokesperson Thomas Blom told a news conference Thursday night that it is too soon to discuss the specifics of the man’s activities. The man worked as a security guard at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, according to PST. As of as now, the case has no other suspects.
John Christian Elden, the suspect’s lawyer, told NRK that although the individual acknowledges working for a foreign nation, he does not enter a guilty plea to espionage.
According to Elden, he is accused of obtaining information that could jeopardize third-country security.
The individual is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in security and preparedness at Norway’s Arctic University, UiT, according to information made public on Friday.
According to NRK, this is the second instance of this kind at UiT in recent years.
Jos Assis Giammaria, an UiT guest researcher who pretended to be Brazilian and was arrested in 2022 on espionage charges, was one of the individuals the West exchanged with Russia in a significant prisoner exchange in August. He was identified by the authorities as Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin, a Russian.
Norway and Russia have a 198-kilometer (123-mile) Arctic border. Since February 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Norway has severely limited access for Russian citizens.
The Norwegian government announced in September that it was thinking about constructing a fence along all or a portion of the border with Russia.
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