WIDESPREAD: John Borresen, acting head of the section for counter-intelligence in the Police Security Service, said between five and ten states involved in refugee espionage in Norway.
Photo: Siv Sandvik / NRK
Pst get more requests for refugee espionage than before. Authoritarian regimes often threatens family in the home country to push asylum seekers into silence.
Exile: Soraya Ghadiri said paramilitary forces had with him a copy of the newspaper article in which his brother Mahmoud criticized the regime when they stormed the family house.
Photo: Siv Sandvik / NRK
- PST has worked on several cases that have similar elements, where the family home is pressed.
It said the acting head of the PST section for counter-intelligence, John Borresen, when NRK.no presents Mahmoud Ghadiris case.
The Norwegian-Iranian convert tells his family in the country to have been tortured after he appeared in Aftenposten in 2008 and criticized the regime in Iran.The Iranian embassy refutes allegations.
- Background: - Family tortured by newspaper article in Norway
- Do you have information about refugee espionage? Tell us!
- Five to ten states involved in refugee espionage
REFUGEE ESPIONAGE
- The purpose of refugee espionage is to undermine, neutralize or eliminate political opposition through monitoring, controlling or threatening regime critics in exile.
- Between five and ten countries will be involved in such activities in Norway.
- Approximately 20 cases have refugee espionage is reviewed annually and the numbers are increasing.
- There are probably many unrecorded and refugee espionage is difficult to prove.
- Only one person is convicted of espionage refugee in Norway, but the judgment is not final.
- Refugee Espionage under the Penal Code section 91a, and is punishable by two years in prison.
- Source: PST and NRK.
Borresen know not Ghadiris story but said in general terms that pressure, intimidation and violence against the family in the home country is an effective weapon for authoritarian states engaged in refugee espionage on Norwegian soil.
- PST has recently worked with several issues and events within the refugee espionage. Between five and ten states have such activities in Norway, and we have seen several examples of that family in the home country are pressured, he says to NRK.no.
Since threats taking place outside the borders, it is very difficult for PST to intervene.
- It is a sore point for people here in Norway who find that family in their home country are under pressure. It is an effective method that will surely give results in many cases, says Borresen.
To subdue all opposition
Result the authoritarian regimes will achieve is that refugees in Norway frightened into silence. The goal is to prevent the opposition outside the country's borders.
- There are authoritarian regimes that are concerned about the activities of their own countries citizens outside their own country's borders, especially activity that is critical of the regime.
- Which groups are most vulnerable?
- The exile communities in Norway where it is politically active regime critics who express themselves or demonstrate, they are most at risk, says Borresen.
Press asylum seekers to spy on their own
Pressure on the family back home is only one of many methods authoritarian states use to control compatriots who fled to Norway, says PST:
- They can send their own agents to Norway to conduct surveillance.
- They can push their citizens to act as informants.
- They can recruit agents for asylum or send fictional asylum seekers .
- They can infect refugees computers to extract information.
- They can use the staff at the Embassy of Norway as agents.
- In recent years we have had several issues and events that we have worked with. It is an activity that is taking place constantly in Norway, says Borresen.
He will not go out of the states engaged with refugee espionage in Norway, but Iran, Eritrea and Ethiopia are often accused of such activities.
- Read also: - Refugee Espionage is extensive
- Read also: How does Iran in Norway
- Read also: Embassy refutes espionage
- Difficult to disclose
Borresen emphasizes that PST has as one of its core tasks to prevent foreign states exposes refugees for surveillance and espionage.
- It is first and foremost to ensure the safety of the people who are in Norway, for them to have the freedom they deserve. It is also important to defend the institution of asylum, and the democratic principles of the Norwegian government founded on a, say Borresen.
But so far only one person taken to court and convicted of espionage refugee in Norway. In June this year, a 38 year old Sudanese in Oslo City Court sentenced to one year and two months in prison for having spied on Sudanese in Norway. The judgment has been appealed and is therefore unenforceable.
- Read also: Sudan taken refugee espionage
According PST there are several reasons why refugee espionage rarely detected and prosecuted.
- Refugee Espionage is a difficult field to work with, and that is the big unknown. Much of the activity is managed in the country, outside Norway, and it is difficult for PST to keep track of this activity, says Borresen.
"Whoever secretly or by illegal means in favor of a foreign state seeks to collect information about political or personal matters if notice of another State which he knows or ought to understand can hurt Norway's interests or cause danger to individual life, health, liberty or property, or who is accessory thereto, shall be punished with clips or imprisonment up to two years. "Penal Code § 91a
Meanwhile, many asylum seekers negative experiences with intelligence services in the country, and dare not contact the police here in Norway.
- It is important for us to build confidence in the exile communities that are most at risk, says Borresen.
Fears for safety
He emphasizes that the PST also currently involved in prevention.
Often it goes out to make contact with vulnerable persons to advise them on how they can discover that they are being subjected to surveillance by the home country authorities. In other cases takes PST individuals into the conversation to tell them that what they are doing may be illegal.
- This occurs in situations where these people are not aware of what they do. They have been commissioned by the domestic authorities to provide information on what is happening in the environment, to find out who is politically active. Then we make them aware of what Norwegian law says about such activity, and what kind of criminal responsibility it entails, says Borresen.
If PST suspect officials who are stationed in Norway are involved in refugee espionage, Norway may file a complaint or a warning to the country's authorities.
- Large set of this matters to be resolved through preventive measures, but the PST has also been cases in recent years which is of such severity that we have been concerned about the safety of individuals who are exposed to refugee espionage, says Borresen.
In such cases the police district where the refugees are staying plugged into the case to ensure that safety is ensured.
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