Arne Treholt is something of a celebrity in Norway.
But in his home town of Limassol he cuts a more discreet figure, giving no hint of his KGB spy days, imprisonment and 26 year battle to clear his name.
All that changed on Thursday, however, when the former diplomat – and Norway’s most infamous cold war spy since his 1985 espionage and high treason conviction – heard that a Norwegian court had rejected his appeal to reopen his case.
As Treholt learned of the court decision, the Norwegian press descended on Limassol to hear his side of the story and, from the RIK studio there, address Norwegian television audiences.
Asked how he felt about the decision, Treholt said he was disappointed and will discuss the next steps with his lawyer in the coming days. “I plan to hold a conversation with Harald Stabell, plus other advisers, to discuss whether it is appropriate to follow up,”
Treholt said it was hard for him to understand how there can be so much doubt about his case and not reopen it: “The last word has not been said…The reason for the rejection is weak.”
He added: “I’m considering now, in light of this, a civil lawsuit against the state and possibly some officials. I might even consider bringing the matter before the courts. A possible third option is to consider the human rights court.”
Justifying the court’s rejection, the head of the five-person commission Helen Saeter said: “The commission has limited its investigation to the claims that evidence was fabricated and false testimony. We have not found grounds for these allegations.”
This was Treholt’s fourth failed attempt to reopen the case since he was pardoned and released in 1992. However, his story began 26 years ago when, as a head of a division of the Norwegian foreign affairs ministry, he was arrested at Fornebu airport on January 20 1984.
He had reportedly been under surveillance by Norwegian counterintelligence services for several years prior to this.
When interrogated, he admitted to meeting a KGB officer and to passing classified documents but not to espionage.
The latest attempt to reopen the case followed the release of a book in September 2010 which alleged that security police fabricated a picture used as evidence to convict him during his trial.
The picture showed a briefcase stuffed with US dollars that prosecutors say Treholt received from the Soviet spy agency KGB.
Treholt maintained that the cash was his winnings from a casino in Vienna, while the Norwegian daily Aftenposten also has quoted a former security police official as saying the money was planted on Treholt. Security police officials reject these accusations.
On June 20 1985 Treholt was sentenced to 20 years in prison, just one year shy of the Norwegian maximum sentence.
He was released from prison in 1992 on medical grounds, moving first to Moscow, where he became CEO of ISMOS Trading, then to Cyprus to head up Rim Investment Management and FMC Securities in Cyprus.
Since 2009 he has been vice president and business development director of the Forex Trading platform, United World Capital.
