Slowly and surely, the PST believes that spy accused Mikhail Mikusjin has built up a credible identity as an academic with an interest in the Arctic and northern regions. How did he proceed? Now news can tell more of the story of how Russian Mikhail Mikusjin, born on 19 August 1978, became Brazilian Jose Assis Giammaria. According to the Norwegian population register, the latter’s date of birth is 20 November 1984. An old Facebook profile There are very few traces of Giammaria on open search engines online. He apparently has not had accounts on popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. A colleague of Mikusjin has previously described to The Guardian newspaper how the man accused of being a spy was “extremely” keen to protect his privacy. He is said to have said that he was opposed to social media. – He didn’t even want to use WhatsApp, and only wanted to talk on Telegram, the colleague told the newspaper. But now news has found Giammaria’s old Facebook profile. The profile is completely empty, but by finding an old Facebook friend of Giammaria’s, news has succeeded in seeing several posts where Giammaria had been tagged. These posts contain a lot of exciting information, and also several photos of Mikhail Mikusjin. From this Facebook profile, several clues point to Malaysia, the country in the South China Sea that experts believe is a favorite location for secret services worldwide. Head teacher in intelligence at the Norwegian Defense Staff School, Tom Røseth, tells news that Malaysia is a well-known country for secret services. – Malaysia can be attractive because it is an easy and safe operating area to become qualified in and train with a tire identity. The country also has many people with an international background living there, says Røseth to news. Friend of student in Malaysia Mikhail Mikusjin, according to the digging network Bellingcat, graduated from GRU’s spy school in 2006. GRU is Russia’s military intelligence, and is known for, among other things, training spies who can operate illegally in other countries. The same year he graduated from this school, he obtained citizenship in Brazil, claiming he had a Brazilian mother, according to the Russian investigative network Insider. Three years after Mikusjin finished spy school, news finds the first digital traces of Mikusjin’s new life. The posts may show how he built up his new identity as Jose Giammaria in Malaysia. In August 2009, a student starts tagging Giammaria in posts on Facebook. The student who says he was born in Iran is currently living in Malaysia. According to the man’s own Linkedin profile, he studied at Taylor’s University to qualify to enter a Canadian university. The purpose of this university in Malaysia is to make the students qualified for international top universities, including in Canada. Digital facial recognition Later that year, the student in Malaysia posts a photo of him and “Jose”. news has used facial recognition software from Amazon to confirm that the photo is actually of Mikusjin. news has used digital facial recognition to make it probable that the man on the left in the picture is Mikhail Mikusjin. The picture is geolocated to Malaysia, and is from 2009. news has found the picture on an old Facebook profile that belonged to the name he used in Norway, Jose Assis Giammaria. The man on the right is a Canadian-Iranian student in Malaysia, and a friend of Jose Giammaria on Facebook. Photo: Screenshot / Aws Amazon The sharing on Facebook is not marked with where the photo was taken, but news’s investigations point to the photo being taken in Malaysia. The picture shows parts of menus from the bar where the people are sitting. One of the sheets announces that there are offers with prices starting from RM13.90. RM is the abbreviation for the unit of currency in Malaysia – the ringgit. Marcela Aranibar Douglas, head of the Center for Peace Studies, (CPS) at the University of Tromsø. Photo: UIT news asks the University of Tromsø if there is anything on Jose Giammaria’s CV about Malaysia. Marcela Aranibar Douglas, head of the Center for Peace Studies, (CPS), takes out his CV. It states that he attended Taylor University College in 2011, according to Douglas. – I also spoke to him about this before he was arrested, and he confirmed that he had studied in Malaysia. He spoke of the country as a nice place to be, says Douglas. She says this was not something he tried to hide. news has contacted Taylor’s University to ask if they can confirm that Mikusjin has studied there, but the university has so far not responded to news’s inquiry. news does not know when Mikhali Mikusjin moved to Malaysia. Jose Giammaria’s CV states that he attended Taylors University in Malaysia. Photo: Taylors University New photos in 2014 “Jose Giammaria” is regularly tagged by his friend on Facebook. The references from the comrade seem to be linked to joint discussions in which “Jose Giammaria” may have participated, but the comments from the profile of “Giammaria” seem to have been deleted today. Then in 2014 a new picture of the man appears. Here, “Jose” is pictured with several others at a restaurant. At this time, “Jose” was a student in Canada, but it seems he has gone to Malaysia to visit his old friends. news’s investigations may indicate that this second photo was taken at the popular restaurant “Asia Café” in Malaysia. The restaurant was not far from Taylor’s University in Kuala Lumpur. news has tried to get in touch with the Iranian student who tagged Jose Giammaria in several posts, but he has so far not responded. This photo was taken at a restaurant in Malaysia in 2014. At the time, Mikhail Mikusjin was a student in Canada. he may have been back in Malaysia to meet old friends. Photo: Privat / Facebook – Malaysia is a safe area to operate in news has given intelligence expert Tom Røseth an insight into our research. He believes it is a likely theory that Mikhail Mikusjin has traveled to Malaysia, to qualify for studies in Canada, and to use Malaysia as part of the start of his career as an illegal. That is, to build up a credible identity before he travels to Canada. Tom Røseth is head teacher in intelligence at the Norwegian Defense Staff School. Photo: The Norwegian Armed Forces – Malaysia is a safe area to operate in. In addition, the country has good relations with Canada. The country also has good relations with Russia. And Brazil, which Mikusjin has also used as part of his identity building, has good connections with Malaysia. So Malaysia is a good place to start for such an operation that it may seem that Russia has started here, says Røseth. Mikhail Mikusjin’s lawyer Marijana Lozic does not want to comment on news’s information, or the statements made by Tom Røseth. Her client pleads not guilty. An empty Facebook profile with a strange name After Malaysia, Mikhail Mikusjin moved to Canada in 2011, according to a Linkedin profile. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with a focus on international relations at the Center for Military, Security and Strategic Studies in Canada. The University of Calgary has stated that he has also taken a master’s degree there. This is confirmed by the university to the public broadcaster in Canada, the CBC. He will have completed his master’s degree in autumn 2018. But in between, according to Insider, he was several times in Russia, where he left digital traces, including after renting an electric scooter. The digging network Bellingcat has also checked Mikushin’s registered addresses in Russia, and found him registered at a residential complex reserved for officers from the Russian military intelligence, GRU. Last autumn, Mikhail Mikusjin came to the University of Tromsø, from Canada. Today, only crumbs remain of the Facebook profile “Jose Giammaria”. At an unknown time, someone deleted the profile. Today, the profile has been renamed with an anonymous Norwegian-sounding name, but news sees the links from the old tags on the friend’s Facebook. PST does not want to comment on what they know about the accused man’s background. – PST has just started an investigation which will be very extensive. The background of the accused will be something the investigation will seek to find answers to, says communications director Trond Hugubakken to news. He states that the PST is in the process of interviewing witnesses and reviewing seizures, and the accused has been remanded in custody for four weeks. – The risk of tampering with evidence is one of the reasons why we cannot provide further details about the investigation, says Hugubakken.
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Suspects of espionage built up fake ID in Malaysia – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
