NORWEGIAN EX-DIPLOMAT GETS 20 YEARS FOR SPYING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000301980003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 25, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 21, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301980003-1
ON PAGE
(
'PEED EW YORK TIMES
AL3
21 June 1985
'1
Norwegian Ex-Diplomat Gets
By BARNABY .1. FEDER
Special to The ^4ew York Timis
OSLO, June 20 ? Arne Treholt, a 42-
year-old former diplomat once re-
garded as a rising star in Norwegian
politics, was convicted today of spying
for the Soviet Union and Iraq and sen-
tenced to 20 years in peon.
Mr. Treholt gave the It ussians a vitae
range of classified or sensitive infor-
mation from 1974 until his arrest 18
months ago, including insights into
Norway's civil and military defenses
and its military cooperation with other
North Atlantic Treaty Organization na-
tions. The information also included
briefings about meetings between
Norwegian officials and foreign states-
men, such as Henry A. Kissinger, Hel-
mut Schmidt, the former West German
Chancellor, and Lord Carrington, Brit-
ain's former Foreign Minister.
The spying began because Mr. Tre-
holt was ideologically attracted to the
Soviet Union and flattered by the
K.G.B.'s interest in him, the seven
judges of the Crown Court concluded in
their unanimous decision. They said
money later became a motive, particu-
larly in his willingness to pass political
and military information to Iraq from
1981 on.
The 20-year sentence is the most se-
vere allowed under Norwegian law for
espionage. Mr. Treholt must also turn
over to the Government $52,000 in a
Swiss bank account and more than
$81.000 that the judges estimated he
earned from spying, as well as paying
court costs of almost $12,000.
?
Said He Never Harmed Norway
i Mr. Treholt maintained from the
start of his trial on Feb. 25 that he had
! never given his Soviet or Iraqi contacts
information harmful to Norway.
Impeccably dressed in a white dou-
ble-brested suit, he listened gravely but
impassively to the sentence as it was
read this morning and then scribbled
frequent notes to himself during the all-
day reading of the decision. He is ex-
pected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Many Norwegians were stunned at
the news of the arrest of the popular
diplomat at Fornebu Airport here on
Jan. 20, 1984. Then head of the Foreign
Ministry's press office, Mr. Trehold
was carrying a briefcase with 66 docu-
ments that the police said were to be
handed over in Vienna to Gennadi
I Titov, a K.G.B. agent Mr. Treholt had
known since 1971.
The verdict today was harsher than
most Norwegians expected. The sen-
tence is twice as long as that handed
down in any other spy case here. About
50 Norwegians have been charged with
spying since World War H, mostly in
connection with the Soviet Union.
Much of the trial was conducted in
open court. But several weeks of testi;
many were taken behind closed doors,
for Spying
and about 100 pages of the 255-page
decision were read in secret today as
well. It is widely assumed that this evi-
dence sealed Mr. Treholt's fate.
Soviet Ties Date to 1917
Mr. Treholt's ties with the Soviet
Union date back to 1967, when as a
young journalist for the Oslo tabloid
Arbeiderbladet, he was introduced to
Yevgeny Belyayev, a Soviet consular
official later identified as a K.G.B.
agent. He became a valuable source of
information for the Russians when he
embarked on a diplomatic career in
late 1972 as personal secretary to Jens
Evensen, then Minister for Trade and
Shipping.
Mr. Treholt moved to New York in
1979 as an economic and social affairs
officer for Norway's delegation to the
United Nations. At that time, suspi-
cious Norwegian security authorities
asked for and received help from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation in
monitoring Mr. Treholt's contacts with
the Russians, some of which resembled
the complicated dropoffs from which
spy novels are made.
In 1982 the Foreign Ministry, un-
aware that Mr. Treholt was suspected
of spying, suggested that he entes Nor-
way's Defense College. The decision by
the new Conservative-led Government
to hide its suspicions and let Mr. Tre-
holt enter the school, where lectures
and tours often deal with secret infor-
mation, has been hotly debated since
his arrest.
The Government has maintained
that it was not sure of its evidence at
the time. The decision today did not
comment but made it clear that much
of the damaging information was
passed to the Russians after Mr. Tre-
holt became a student at the school.
Leading politicians suggested to-
night in cautious interviews with
Norwegian television that political fall-
out from the case may be minimal. The
opposition Labor Party cannot go too
far in raising questions about the Gov-
ernment's judgment on admitting Mr.
Treholt to the Defense College without
reminding voters that it is the Labor
Party's left wing that spawned Mr.
Treholt's ideological beliefs and vul-
nerability to Soviet influence.
ear
STAT
Mr. Treholt is the son of a former
Labor Party member of Parliament
and became active in party politics as a
young man. At?the time he first made
contact with the Russians, he was an
outspoken opponent of American in-
volvement in Vietnam and Norway's
membership in NATO, as well as a sup-
porter of the Greek Socialist opposition
to that country's military rulers.
His energy, outgoing personality and
marriage in 1967 to Kari Storaekre, a
Norwegian television star, contributed
to his image as an rising young man.
The marriage is among the things
shattered by his arrest. Miss Storaelue
recently filed for divorce and has taken
their 7-year-old son to Stockholm,
where she is working for Swedish tele-
vision.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/09/25: CIA-RDP90-00965R000301980003-1
STAT