Arne Treholt (13 December 1942 – 12 February 2023) was a Norwegian civil servant, diplomat and Labour Party politician who was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Iraq. Treholt served as the State Secretary under , Jens Evensen, from 1976–78, as a Norwegian counsellor at the United Nations in New York from 1979–82, as a student at the Norwegian Joint Staff College from 1982–83, and head of the press department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983.

Espionage

Treholt provided the Soviet Union with information on the Norwegian defense plans for northern Norway in the event of a Soviet invasion, material weaknesses in the Norwegian Armed Forces, mobilization plans, information on how to most effectively take out Norwegian soldiers, Norwegian emergency plans, the location of NATO allies' stored equipment in Norway, and the meeting minutes of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Treholt was found to possess a secret bank account in Switzerland with a substantial illicit amount. Treholt's espionage is generally seen as the most serious spy case in the modern history of Norway. Following his arrest, Treholt was described as "the greatest traitor to Norway since Quisling". The Treholt case was the last major espionage case in Norway during the Cold War, following the earlier Haavik case, the Høystad case and the Sunde case.

Investigation and arrest

Treholt was placed under surveillance by Norwegian counterintelligence services for several years of his career in the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs () and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (). On 20 January 1984, he was arrested by Ørnulf Tofte, head of counterintelligence, at Fornebu Airport in Oslo, on his way to Vienna to meet with KGB officers. The arrest, which happened on the way to a secret meeting with KGB General when Treholt was the head of the press department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, caused serious shock in the country.

Treholt admitted unauthorized contact with KGB officers but claimed that he maintained these contact to open channels between East and West in one of the coldest phases of the Cold War. Throughout the case, Treholt denied that he had handed over information to his contacts that could harm national security, while he acknowledged violating the rules that a public official is obliged to follow. Treholt also acknowledged that as a Norwegian UN diplomat he had written several memoranda for the Iraqi Intelligence Service and received significant sums of money for his work.

In total, he served nine years in maximum security prisons. The decision was final and could not be appealed. As a result of the decision, the prosecutor who handled the case in 2008, , wrote a book to summarize the case. The book – () – was published in September 2009. The chairwoman of the review commission, Janne Kristiansen, was appointed head of the Norwegian Police Security Service, the descendant organization of the (). Kristiansen and the would be defending the former from allegations of evidence tampering later on.

In September 2010, a new book by the con artist Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen, who then claimed to be a private investigator, claimed that the searches of Treholt's apartment had not taken place and that one of the pieces of evidence presented in court had been fabricated by the police. He applied for a review of his case. On 18 September 2010, the Norwegian newspaper wrote that an anonymous former counter-intelligence employee claimed Treholt's and his lawyer's claim of evidence fabrication was true, but a few days later the anonymous alleged former employee withdrew many of his claims, stating that he did not know. The Attorney General asked the Criminal Cases Review Commission to look at the case again in light of the recent claims. The Attorney General stated that he did not believe the outcome of the case would have been any different without the evidence in question. Malthe-Sørenssen was publicly exposed as a fraudster in 2016, and his alleged source was revealed by Verdens Gang to be a used car salesman and convicted murderer and con artist with no connection to the Treholt case, who was paid by Malthe-Sørenssen to impersonate a police security service employee.

On 24 September 2010, the Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission decided to reopen its investigation of the case, previously closed in 2008. On 9 June 2011, the commission decided that the Arne Treholt criminal case would not be reopened.

Based on interviews with 29 witnesses (18 of whom were former police investigators who had been involved in the Treholt investigation) as well as forensic studies of photographs, negatives and documents, the commission unanimously concluded that there was no basis to suggest that evidence against Treholt had been tampered with or had been fabricated. In a 59-page document, the commission completely discounted the allegations made in the 2010 book.

After the verdict, PST-director Kristiansen, who had denied re-opening the case in 2008, demanded an apology from Treholt's supporters. The demand was rejected.

In 2014 Treholt's lawyer Harald Stabell claimed to have been tipped off by an employee of Police Security Service that his law office had been under audio surveillance in 2010 and 2011. After Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen had been exposed as a fraudster in 2016, Stabell stated that the source of this claim was Malthe-Sørenssen and not an employee of the Police Security Service.

Later life and death

Through interviews, debates and television productions, Treholt was an active presence in the Norwegian public sphere in the years after his pardon even beyond his espionage case. that Treholt had been admitted to a hospital in Cyprus and was in a stable but critical condition, and in a coma, possibly suffering from blood poisoning.

Treholt was accused by the Norwegian media of promoting Russian propaganda. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Treholt and Glenn Diesen wrote an article that claimed that Russia has "legitimate interests and security needs" and claimed that Russia was unfairly demonized. Aftenposten's foreign affairs editor Kjell Dragnes wrote that Treholt and Diesen promoted Russian propaganda.

The 2010 action-comedy Norwegian Ninja created a fake "secret history" of the affair: Treholt was commander of a secret team of ninjas that fought enemies of the state on orders from the King of Norway, and that their centre-left political views lead to Operation Gladio framing them for treason. Directed by Thomas Cappelen Malling, it is based on his own 2006 novel Ninjateknikk II. Usynlighet i strid 1978 (Ninja Technique II. Invisibility in Battle 1978), written from the perspective of Treholt.

Works

Treholt wrote several autobiographical books on his experiences in prison:

  • "Alone" (Alene, 1985)
  • "Section K" (Avdeling K, 1991)
  • "Shades of Grey" (Gråsoner, 2004)

References

  • Norwegian links
  • Book defending Treholt
  • Final verdict
  • Dagbladet commenting on the judgement
  • English links
  • "Treholt as BOD member in EU SEC regulated firm", in UWCFX.com, English version.
  • "Norwegian Secret Police surveillance pictures", released on flickr. Last access date: 21 August 2009