Norway’s intelligence agency said a Norwegian citizen had been arrested on suspicion of attempting to spy for China.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s domestic security agency said Tuesday that a Norwegian national has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to spy for China, but did not provide further details about the case.
“We are keeping quiet for now as it is still in the early stages and we will not give out many details about the case,” said Thomas Blom, a prosecutor with the security service, known by its Norwegian acronym PST.
His comments came after the suspect, identified only as a man, was detained for four weeks on suspicion of serious espionage involving state secrets.
“This is a matter of national security,” Blom said. The man was arrested Monday morning at Oslo International Airport “after a stay in China,” according to prosecutors. Blom said the arrest was not dramatic.
Blom said the suspect was “well known” but declined to provide further details. “We believe the information he had was directed at Chinese intelligence,” he added, without naming the Chinese agency.
If convicted, the man faces up to 10 years in prison.
The suspect’s lawyer, Marius Dietrichson, told The Associated Press that his client denies being a Chinese agent and will plead innocent.
Norway’s domestic security service said in its annual threat assessment that China “will pose a significant intelligence threat in 2024.”
“This is particularly due to deteriorating relations between China and the West, China’s desire for more control over its supply chain, and its position in the Arctic,” the assessment, released in February, said. PST also said the intelligence threat from China was “significant.”
Relations between Oslo and Beijing have been tense in the past.
In 2017, then-Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg visited China to restore full ties between the two countries after Beijing snubbed Oslo seven years earlier over the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed Chinese dissident. While the Norwegian government has no say in the Nobel committee’s selections, China has suspended a bilateral trade agreement and restricted imports of Norwegian salmon.
Norway has revealed other suspected foreign intelligence activities in the country in recent years.
In 2022, Norway arrested an academic working as a lecturer at the Norwegian Arctic University in Tromsø, who entered Norway under Brazilian nationality, on suspicion of espionage for Russian intelligence. Jose Assis Jamalia, who confirmed his real name as Mikhail Miksin, arrived in Norway in 2021 and was researching northern regions and hybrid threats. Norway’s Arctic border with Russia stretches for 198 kilometers (123 miles).
A trial date has not yet been set in Miksin’s case.
