An attorney who has assisted Norway in checking personal data for immigration cases has been arrested in Turkey.
According to Turkish and German media, the man is in custody and charged with espionage, VG writes.
According to press spokesman Ingrid Kvammen Ekker in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkish authorities have not accused Norway of spying on Turkey.
“The Turkish authorities have so far not expressed to us that they consider this to be Norwegian espionage,” she tells VG.
The lawyer was in possession of dozens of personal files when he was arrested, and during the search of his office in Istanbul, the police must have seized several thousand reports on persons.
Norwegian immigration authorities have now notified 13 Turkish asylum seekers that their personal data may have gone astray. Most of them had been granted asylum before the lawyer was arrested on September 17.
He has since been held in solitary confinement in Sincan Prison for nearly two months, with failing health, his lawyer told Turkish media.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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