A 40-year-old Norwegian man found guilty for spying for an Iranian intelligence service is facing seven years in jail.
A Danish court on Friday sentenced the suspect, who has Iranian descent, for the spy and complicity in a suspected plot to kill an Iranian Arab opposition figure.
The man was arrested in October 2018 in a police operation that even prompted Denmark to temporarily close its shared borders with other countries.
The name of the suspect was not divulged.
During the period between September 25 and 27, the suspect was found observing and taking photos of the home of the Iranian asylum seeker in Denmark, as well as the streets and roads surrounding his home.
“The court found that the information was collected and passed on to a person working for an Iranian intelligence service, for use by the intelligence service’s plans to kill the exile,” the Roskilde District Court said in a statement on Friday.
The court said the defendant pleaded not guilty and declined to speak during the trial which was held behind closed doors.
It added that online chats between the suspect and the person working for the Iranian intelligence service weighed in as evidence.
The exile, whose name was also not divulged, leads an Iranian Arab resistance group called the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA).
As part of the investigation, Danish police have charged three members of ASMLA, including the group’s leader, for spying in Denmark for an unnamed Saudi intelligence service.
The three men of the London-based group were arrested in February in Ringsted, or about 60 kilometres southwest of Copenhagen. They were suspected of spying on people and companies over a period of six years since 2012.
One or all of them are believed to have been the target of the plot involving the Norwegian man of Iranian descent. His citizenship was not given. Sentencing was expected later Friday.
