A 51-year-old Russian national has been arrested in Norway on suspicion of spying during a conference on strengthening cooperation between Europe’s parliamentary administrations.
His lawyer, Hege Aakre, told the Norwegian news agency NTB on Monday that her client, who was not identified, was being questioned by Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, PST.
His behaviour at the two-day conference prompted parliamentary officials to contact the intelligence service.
He was arrested on Friday during the event hosted by the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation at Norway’s parliament, and placed on pre-trial detention for two weeks the following day. No further details were available.
Aakre says her client denies any wrongdoing.
The ECPRD is a European network for cooperation between parliamentarians on research, documentation and information. The Oslo event focused on digitalisation.