Second Chinese arrested for espionage in Norway in less than two weeks. Homeland Security Service announcement
Norway's Internal Security Service (PST) announced on Sunday that a Chinese national had been arrested in the north of the country on suspicion of espionage, about 10 days after a Chinese woman was arrested for spying on satellite data.
The suspect was detained by Nordland police on Friday, PST spokesman Erik Veum told AFP.
It said the man was suspected of “attempted illegal intelligence activities in Nordland”, but declined to provide further details on the nature of the activities.
On Sunday, a Norwegian court ordered the suspect to be remanded in custody for four weeks.
The man's lawyer, Tor Haug, told the NTB news agency that the man in question denied committing the crime.
He is the second Chinese arrested for espionage this month
On May 7, PST announced the arrest of a woman of Chinese origin, suspected of spying on Norwegian satellite data.
The authorities' action was based on suspicions that a company registered in Norway is being used as a cover for an attempt by a Chinese state actor to set up a receiving station to download data from satellites in polar orbit,” Thomas Blom, police prosecutor at PST, told AFP at the time.
The PST stated then that there are four other suspects in the same file.
Norway's intelligence services regularly point to China and Russia as the Nordic country's main espionage risks.
In its latest threat assessment report, the PST noted that countries Russia and China have shown interest in acquiring land near critical infrastructure or military installations.
