On Friday evening, a 25-year-old foreign citizen was arrested by PST, charged with having conducted intelligence against Norway. It is unclear who the man is supposed to have conducted intelligence on behalf of. In the order it is stated that “his rental car has been observed on camera surveillance at the same time as a signal assessment is made at the Government Quarters, the Prime Minister’s office and the Ministry of Defence”. Furthermore, the right refers to a report on surveillance. – We are facing a fairly extensive investigation and we are at the very beginning, where it is about securing evidence, says police attorney Thomas Fredrik Blom in PST to news. On Sunday afternoon, the court decided to imprison the man for four weeks with a ban on letters and visits. The man will serve the first two weeks in solitary confinement. Been in Norway for a short time The man is a student, but not at a Norwegian teaching institution, and he has been in Norway for a relatively short time, confirms PST to news. The 25-year-old was arrested on Friday 8 September at 21.10. Blom says the police have seized a number of data-carrying devices and electronic items which the PST will now investigate. – He is charged with using technical installations to have carried out illegal signals intelligence, says Blom. The man is charged under Section 121 of the Criminal Code. With a fine or imprisonment of up to 3 years, whoever, for the benefit of a foreign state, terrorist organization or without valid reason, collects or comes into possession of secret information which, if it becomes known to such a state , terrorist organization or otherwise disclosed, may damage fundamental national interests that apply to a. defense, security and preparedness matters, b. the activities, security or freedom of action of the highest state bodies, c. relations with other states, d. security arrangements for the representation of foreign states and at major national and international events, e. society’s infrastructure, such as food, water and energy supply, transport and telecommunications, health emergency services or the banking and monetary system, or, for example, Norwegian natural resources. Source: Legal data It is likely that there are several people implicated in the case, according to the ruling. – Did he operate alone? – I think that a young student alone hardly has the resources needed to carry out what we believe he has managed, at least so far, says Blom. – Is there reason to believe that those he collaborates with are state actors? – I don’t think I should comment on that, at least there are people with more resources than a student in his mid-twenties can dispose of, he says. The police prosecutor will also not comment on how PST believes the man has operated, or what goals he has had in Norway. – There is a real and highly imminent danger of tampering with evidence, which means that we are limited in what we are going with now, says Blom. news was present when the man was produced for imprisonment at 11.30 this morning, but is subject to a record ban. The man consented to imprisonment. Photo: Ingrid Emilie Waaler – Dramatic arrest According to the police attorney, the man did not want to explain himself to PST. According to defender Aase Karin Sigmond in Sigmond & Ysen, this is because he was in bad shape after a “dramatic” arrest. – The arrest, lack of access to the documents, stay in solitary confinement and he was very affected by sitting with the police. He was not prepared to go into any questioning either, she says to news. Lawyer Kirsten Sigmond represented the man in court on Sunday, but her colleague and sister Aase Karin Sigmond is the man’s defender. Photo: Ingrid Emilie Waaler Neither Sigmond nor Blom want to describe the arrest of the man in more detail. However, Blom describes the arrest as “undramatic”. Neither party will comment on what the man has done in Norway, how long he has been here, or which country the man is a citizen of. – He consents to imprisonment so that the police will have the opportunity to investigate the case further, he does not admit criminal guilt in relation to the charge, says Sigmond. In PST’s threat assessment from 2023, Russia in particular, but also China, Iran and North Korea are singled out as state actors that pose a “significant intelligence threat” to Norway. Alleged to have engaged in signals intelligence Former defense chief Sverre Diesen explains that signals intelligence is the interception of communications such as radio communications, mobile telephony or text messages. – Eavesdropping on telephones or other forms of communication is not legal for intelligence purposes. Diesen says that certain forms of communication are protected, by encryption or in other ways. These require special equipment and are more difficult to listen to. – If it is encrypted, you must also be able to decrypt it, and that is quite demanding. This will usually require large resources, both technically and in terms of expertise. The National Security Authority (NSM) confirms to news that they are assisting PST in the case, but will not answer news’s questions about the case for the sake of the investigation. Tip news’s crime group: Do you have information about this case or other crime cases? Contact news’s crime group. You can tip us off by e-mail or through news’s encrypted notification service. Here you can tip us anonymously. We also treat all tips confidentially, in line with the Vær varsom poster’s rules on source protection.
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Signal output around the Prime Minister’s office – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
