(Dagbladet): It’s almost a month ago sensational phone recordings of private investigator and former journalist Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen (50) was published in VG. In phone calls asking Malthe-Sørenssen a previous criminal record, Swedish householder (51) to play the role of the fictional intelligence agent “Gunnar”. The Swede was told to contact Treholt lawyer Harald Stabell and present him with information that could rein wash spy sentenced Arne Treholt.
VG disclosure shook the table and Treholt who had worked with Malthe-Sørenssen for several years to get resumed Treholt case.
None of them understand why Malthe-Sørenssen have done as he did, while the protagonist has his lawyer claimed that footage of VG is manipulated.
Dagbladet met Malthe-Sørenssen at a secret location abroad.
How could a person with long experience as a journalist and editor to get involved in a big scandal?
– Tried to cherish source
We sit in the corner of a small cafe. The prelude to the meeting has been secret. Malthe-Sørenssen have sent messages from a secret e-mail account, and has just called from hidden numbers. He looks around the room before him begins to tell.
In 2013, he told Treholt lawyer Harald Stabell that he had information from another source that could shed new light on Treholt case.
– It was a source that was terribly hard to get in speech. Stabell and Treholt wanted me to arrange a meeting, but I told them it was difficult to get to. They began to nag at me and started including calling for intelligence services to obtain this source. I was afraid that this would have consequences, and what happens then I have no excuse. I make a source that does not exist and they provide the source to protect the real source, says Malthe-Sørenssen.
– So you still claims that there is a genuine source out there?
– I have always claimed that it has been a source there, but I do a hopeless assessment to shield this source. I ask a former source I have known for many years to play an agent who has information.
– Why did not you just that this agent would not meet anymore?
– I got 25 000 Treholt Foundation in 2013 and wrote a report to them on the original source. During 2014 increased the pressure to get the source to come forward. I was extremely tired because of other circumstances, and showed incredibly poor judgment in what happened afterwards.
– When you decided that it would be better to fabricate a source?
– I made some choices that there is no excuse. I made up a source to protect another. Totally inexcusable and totally incomprehensible that I could do it.
– Why did you just Swede source?
– I’ve known him for several years and told him that I needed help to get out of a predicament. He was willing to help me.
– For VG, he has said he would get the money for you to be part of this. Was money the real reason why you did this?
– No, I have not earned a penny on this. I borrowed some money of the Swede around the turn of 2014-2015, but I have not billed chart a single penny for this work here. I wanted, as I said just to protect the original source.
Sorry source cheating
Sweating Beads gleams on the shiny pate. The waiter comes over and asks if we wanted to order food, but Malthe-Sørenssen shakes his head.
– I do not eat as much food anymore. I become mentally stressed when I go through all this, he says.
Malthe-Sørenssen got the Swede, who lived several years in Norway in the 90s, to call table to calm him down. It went so far that the former journalist arranged a meeting between the table and the agent “Gunnar”.
It happened inside of a hotel room at Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz Oslo. Stabell got talking to the fictional agent through the door to the bathroom.
The Swede has VG said that it was not he who was in the bathroom and that he believed Malthe-Sørenssen had asked more about playing agent.
Dagbladet has talked to the Swede who now says that it was actually he who was at the hotel that day.
– Why did not you tell the whole truth?
– I was simply embarrassed. That sounds completely idiotic to admit something so special. I agreed to participate in things that I regret today. I apologize to all concerned, says the Swede told Dagbladet.
Also Malthe-Sørenssen is sorry for what has happened.
– What would you say to Treholt and table today?
– I want to apologize to the table and Treholt. I have brought them back light and is terribly sorry for the damage I have caused both they and matter. Is there an issue I have been concerned in life then it Treholt case. I was so tired and far down. It meant that I showed incredibly poor judgment, says Malthe-Sørenssen.
Done that investigate
After Treholt unveiling several began to suspect Malthe-Sørenssen to stand behind even more cheating. NRK has already announced that they are going to scrutinize everything him has done for them, and it has also been questioned about the anonymous source in his book “counterfeit” actually existed. Several of the information in the book stems from a retired officer of the Police Intelligence Service (POT).
Police suspect also Malthe-Sørenssen to have planted evidence eavesdropping equipment in the office chart.
– Do you understand that credibility your journalist is destroyed after the disclosure?
– Yes, I understand, but I’ll never work as a journalist or studying again. Now I’m going to do to other things, he says.
– The only remedy
– Despite the great disappointment he has caused Treholt and me, it is positive that he now acknowledges the action, and regret it to us. Also to himself he does the right thing, says Treholt lawyer Harald Stabell Dagbladet.
– What do you think he still claims that there is a source out there with information?
– Before we get presented a real source adds Treholt and I assumed that the source does not exist.
When Dagbladet asks the former journalist how it could go wrong, he claims it all started when he fell in a dispute with a convicted businessman he worked as studying for. Malthe-Sørenssen claims he was threatened – and that conflict with businessman meant that it went beyond his judgment.
In June last year, ex-journalist arrested and charged with gross corruption, and after a week in custody, businessman arrested. Malthe-Sørenssen claims it was information he gave to police interrogation that got the businessman arrested.
Business’s lawyer believes Malthe-Sørenssen not substantiate the allegations her.
– The police acted then against my client based on information from Malthe-Sørenssen, which subsequently have been unable to corroborate any of their claims.
– No operators can take his claims seriously, he has been revealed for conducting extensive fraudulent activity.
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