Major espionage case in Denmark triggered by Iranians in Norway – Human Rights Service
On Friday last week, a spy fell in Denmark. It is a case that has lacked everything from the public – and for good reasons. So let’s start over, or at least almost from scratch.
Do you remember when large parts of Denmark were shut down on 28 September 2018? The police are blocked by the country’s biggest brother and block access to the ferries in what is described as Denmark’s biggest police action. The traffic chaos was complete and all cars were examined by armed police. And no one, except selected in the police and police security service (PET), knew why. But just as suddenly as an eerie unknown threat fell over the land, it was all blown away. A black Volvo had been hunted, arrived from Sweden, but in this car sat some petty criminal youths who were not particularly keen on contact with the police and who also did not understand why they were being hunted. So they gave up gas – and that’s how they became part of something they should never have been involved in. But what they did manage was to make the public even more confused. For everyone who followed, realized that something big was going on in Denmark. Without realizing what, but there was some mumbling that a group of Iranian refugees’ lives in Zealand were in danger.
Then we start all over again, with source material from a collaboration between Danish DR and NRK, in addition to VPRO (the Netherlands) participating in this work. DR has gained access to a secret list that tells about the names of people and organizations that have been spied on. There are more than 100 names in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and other western countries. The spy group consists of three men, all Iranian refugees in Denmark, more specifically in Ringsted in Zealand.
The Norwegian-Iranian secret intelligence agent
It is the early evening of 25 September 2018 that a man became interested in a home in Ringsted. He studies the surroundings and photographs the door phone by the front door. The man’s name is Mohammad Loloei (40), an Iranian who lives in Norway. Loloei was granted asylum as a refugee in 2008 and is a Norwegian citizen.
Several months before this evening in little Ringsted, Loloei has received coded messages from an Iranian intelligence officer. Loloei is instructed to travel to Denmark. In this upsurge that Loloei was interested in, Habib Yabor Kabi (51) lives with family, also a refugee from Iran. Kabi came to Denmark in 2006 as a «particularly vulnerable quota refugee», where he runs a TV station and an international organization that aims to contribute to the independence of the area around the city of Ahwaz, southwest of Iran. The organization, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA), started Kabi in 1999, that is, while he continued to live in Iran. Kabi is thus a key figure for other Arabs who want liberation for this area.
This activity is probably regarded by the Iranian clerical regime as both a threat and a political opportunism. Kabi has said after his leaving Iran that several of his friends from what he calls the “secession movement” have been arrested and executed. While Kabi has lived in Denmark, Iran has several times demanded that he be extradited for terrorist charges.
For two days, Loloei follows Kabi and his family, but what Loloei does not know is that his spies on Kabi, then PET shadows Loloei – who is neither the first nor the last secret intelligence agent Iran has sent to Europe. Among other things, the Netherlands has expelled Iranian diplomats after a political refugee from Iran was liquidated in broad daylight in 2017. The killer was a longtime friend of Kabi, and also co-founder of ASMLA.
Kabi fears he is in mortal danger. The same view has PET. Therefore, since the murder in the Netherlands, they have secretly protected Kabi.
PET turns bunk
At night, PET strikes. Loloei is in the hotel room and in his car PET finds an Iranian and Norwegian passport, a gas pistol and a long-bladed knife. In the morning, PET uses the opportunity to search his room, while Loloei eats breakfast. Then Loloei sets course for the Øresund Bridge and drives into Sweden. PET he gets out of sight.
The next day, however, they are on full alert again. A suspicious car has been observed moving in from Sweden to Denmark, a Swedish-registered black Volvo. Police are trying to get the car to drive to the side, but the Volvo is speeding. PET is Loloei who has returned to live off Kabi, and they believe that Kabi and his family are called a safehouse in a secret place. But it was a false alarm this special day, 28 September 2018, in Danish history. It turns out that Loloei is on his way to Iran to meet his boss in the Iranian intelligence service.
About the same time as this is happening in Denmark, something is happening in the city of Ahwaz in Iran. A military parade was subjected to a violent attack. Four men armed with machine guns open fire, killing at least 25 soldiers and random spectators. 70 are injured.
But the attack is being hailed – among other things by ASMLA. In an interview, Kabi calls the attack “a heroic operation – of high quality”. Iran claims that Denmark houses terrorists linked to the terrorist attack and demands that Denmark take action, including against Kabi. PET turns the pile over, and starts to take a closer look at Kabi as well.
Iran and Saudi Arabia
While Loloei is in Iran, he is wanted internationally. In Norway, Loloei has attracted attention, among other things, because it has become known that he celebrated the Persian New Year in March 2018, in the front row, together with the Iranian ambassador to Norway.
When Loloei lands at the airport in Gothenburg on October 21, 2018, he is arrested and taken to Denmark. When the trial began, Loloei pleaded not guilty. Some of the key evidence in the case was a coded chat between Loloei and a person who, according to police, is affiliated with the Iranian intelligence service. But the defense attorney said it could not be proved that the person was employed by the Iranian intelligence service, nor that it could not be proven that there were plans to kill the leader of the ASMLA.
On June 26, 2020, Loloei is found guilty of espionage and aiding and abetting the murder. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and deported from Denmark forever. By 2021 must have been transferred to prison in Norway. In his latest comment to the Danish court, Loloei said, among other things:
«I would like to make a small remark regarding PET and the Danish police. The Danish police and PET have for 14 years protected a group of people knowing about carrying out terrorist activities », with reference to ASMLA.
That knowledge was actually given to PET, and it went to a month after Loloei had landed at Gothenburg airport. In November 2018, PET secretly searches the apartment for Kabi and the TV studio for ASMLA which is located right next door. They set up eavesdropping equipment, and then PET finds a USB key. It reveals that there is not just one, but two, powerful intelligence services operating in Denmark. Hidden on this USB key are 1,200 messages, where one part of the communication has the code name MS32, which is Kabi and his ASMLA in Denmark. The other party is a Saudi intelligence officer.
Kabi, ASMLA and Saudi Arabia have one thing in common: hatred of Iran.
Terror cell
The USB key reveals that ASMLA and Kabi have been operating as an illegal spy cell for Saudi Arabia from Ringsted for years. ASMLA has asked Saudi intelligence services to provide information on where Iran has installed missiles, drones and military bases – and they have identified spy targets in Europe. They want information about a number of organizations and named people in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.
ASMLA has black with a stream of reports. Not least, they have designated refugees in European countries as enemies and intelligence agents. They are now living dangerously.
PET’s interception also gives results. PET finds out that Kabi’s ASMLA has an armed branch that carries out attacks in Iran – but Kabi understands that Denmark will not like it. In a conversation with his own son-in-law, who together with Kabi’s little brother is central in ASMLA in Denmark, Kabi says that they must distance themselves from the armed branch of the Organization because «the Danes will not accept it». When asked by the son-in-law if it means putting the armed struggle aside, the answer is a resounding no.
The next day, the police go into action with Kabi, the little brother and the son-in-law. On Friday – in a case that has gone behind closed doors and strong guards – they were found guilty of, among other things, having spied for Saudi Arabia for years and for having financed and promoted terror in Iran.
But if there’s one thing this case tells us, it’s that The hatred and methods of the Middle East have come to Europe.
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Sources for this case are primarily DR: The spy warmen also:
NRK: Saudi intelligence had listed people in Norway
NRK: Convicted Norwegian-Iranians are transferred to prison in Norway
Danish TV2: When Zealand closed down
NRK: Here, the man accused of assassination celebrates the New Year with the Iranian ambassador