By Terje Solsvik

OSLO (Reuters) – Arne Treholt, a Norwegian diplomat who offered Western secrets and techniques to the Soviet Union through the Chilly Warfare and as just lately as 2020 warned his compatriots to not antagonize Russia, has died in Moscow on the age of 80, the Norwegian authorities introduced on Monday.

Treholt, a journalist, politician and diplomat tipped to grow to be international minister, was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to twenty years in jail. The courtroom’s verdict stated his spying had induced “irreparable hurt” to Norway.

The son of a former cupboard minister, Treholt was arrested at Oslo airport on his option to a gathering with Russian KGB spy brokers in Vienna with a briefcase stuffed with confidential paperwork, prosecutors stated.

He was convicted in 1985 of passing data to the KGB concerning Norwegian navy protection plans, together with how and the place the NATO navy alliance member deliberate to obtain reinforcements in a possible battle .

He argued that what he shared didn’t hurt Norway’s pursuits.

As Norway’s deputy minister for ocean rights within the late Nineteen Seventies, Treholt had been deeply concerned in talks with the then Soviet Union about how the 2 neighbors ought to share sovereignty over a large space. arctic waters.

At stake have been fishing rights in addition to future oil and fuel exploration. Treholt was discovered responsible of leaking data through the talks.

IRAN-IRAQ WAR ASSESSMENTS

He additionally offered intelligence to Iraq, together with NATO assessments of the then-ongoing Iran-Iraq battle, the courtroom discovered.

His then-wife stated he saved her at nighttime when he left to satisfy the KGB in Vienna, telling her he was on his option to Paris.

The courtroom rejected his declare that he was working a non-public channel to easy East-West ties, including that cash appeared to have been the dominant motive.

Blackmail might have been an element as a result of the KGB had photographs of Treholt participating in an orgy in Moscow in 1975, prosecutors stated. Treholt denied in courtroom that the photographs performed a task.

In 1992, a 12 months after the top of the Chilly Warfare, Treholt was pardoned for failing well being.

The then Labor authorities’s resolution to launch him after eight-and-a-half years in jail was criticized by the opposition, who stated he obtained favorable therapy in comparison with different prisoners.

After his launch, Treholt made a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt to have his espionage verdict overturned.

Lately he has lived primarily in Moscow and Cyprus.

In 2020, he wrote a joint opinion piece within the Norwegian every day Aftenposten with a Russian educational warning Norway to not neglect what they known as Russia’s reputable pursuits.

“Any jolt within the stability between good ally and good neighbour,” they wrote, “can simply have unpredictable penalties.”