OSLO, Norway — A Norwegian student in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia and Iran while working as a security guard at the US Embassy in Oslo, Norwegian authorities say.
The man, whose identity is not yet known, was ordered to remain in custody for four weeks. According to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, he runs a security company together with dual citizenship of Norway and an unspecified Eastern European country.
Oslo police said on Friday they would review the company’s operating license.
Norway’s domestic intelligence agency PST said on Thursday evening that the man was arrested in his garage at home on Wednesday on suspicion of harming national security with his intelligence-related activities.
The court’s arrest warrant states, among other things, that, according to NRK, the police found notes of the man’s command dialogue with a person who apparently supervised his espionage activities.
The man admitted to collecting and sharing information with Russian and Iranian authorities, the court order said, according to NRK.
It is too early to talk about the details of the man’s activity, PST spokesman Thomas Blom said at a press conference on Thursday evening. PST has confirmed that the man worked as a security guard at the US Embassy in Oslo. There are no other suspects in the case at this time.
The suspect’s lawyer, John Christian Elden, told NRK that the man admits to working for a foreign country, but is not guilty of espionage.
“He is accused of obtaining information that could damage the security situation of third countries,” Elden said.
It was announced on Friday that the man is studying for a bachelor’s degree in security and preparedness at the Norwegian Arctic University, UiT.
According to NRK, this is the second case at UiT in recent years.
One of the people who swapped the West with Russia in a year major prisoner exchange in August, a UiT guest researcher claiming to be a Brazilian named José Assis Giammaria was arrested on espionage charges in 2022. Police revealed he was a Russian, Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin.
Norway has a 198 kilometer long border with Russia in the Arctic. Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Norway has severely restricted entry for Russian nationals.
In September, the Norwegian government said it was considering a plan build a fence along all or part of the border with Russia.