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Prosecutors said he handed over details about the embassy’s
diplomats, its floor plans and security routines, among other
things, Norwegian state broadcaster NRK reported. The
broadcaster reported that American ties to Israel and the war in
Gaza prompted the man to contact Russia and Iran.
The man's defense attorneys, in a statement Thursday, said the
verdict raises questions about what is considered espionage
under Norwegian law.
“He lied about having security clearance to agents from other
countries and exaggerated his own role," attorney Inger Zadig of
Elden Law Firm said in the statement. "He had roughly the same
level of access as a janitor at the embassy. The information he
shared was worthless and neither separately nor collectively
capable of harming individuals or the security interests of any
state.”
The defendant was found guilty of five espionage-related charges
and acquitted of gross corruption. His defense attorneys are
weighing whether to appeal the verdict, while prosecutor Carl
Fredrik Fari said his team is considering appealing the sentence
because the state had asked for more than six years in prison.
At the time of his arrest last November, the man had been
studying for a bachelor’s degree in security and preparedness at
Norway’s Arctic University, UiT.
It is a second such case at UiT in recent years, according to
NRK.
One of the people the West swapped with Russia in a major
prisoner exchange last year was a UiT guest researcher who
claimed to be a Brazilian named José Assis Giammaria, arrested
on espionage allegations in 2022. The police revealed him to be
a Russian national by the name of Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin.
Norway has a 198-kilometer (123-mile) long border with Russia in
the Arctic. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in
February 2022, Norway has heavily restricted entry for Russian
nationals.
Last year, the Norwegian government said it was considering a
plan to build a fence along all or part of its border with
Russia.
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