Norway charges Telenor with dual human rights and sanction breaches

Norwegian law enforcement agencies charged the country’s state-owned telecommunications company, Telenor ASA, for breaching sanctions and potentially being complicit in crimes against humanity in Myanmar, investigators announced on Tuesday. During a press conference held later in the day, Norwegian authorities confirmed that police had also raided the company’s headquarters in Oslo as part of the investigation. Telenor is a Norwegian majority state-owned telecommunications company that has faced severe condemnation for its transfer of sensitive data and spyware to the junta during its sale of Telenor Myanmar and its exit from the country in March 2022. The decision to investigate the company is a significant development in the ongoing Telenor case. Two previous demands for an investigation—one by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the other jointly by Justice for Myanmar and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)—were both closed by police without inquiry. Yadanar Maung, the spokesperson for Justice for Myanmar—a civil society organisation which has persistently pushed for the investigation—welcomed the decision. “We hope this will finally lead to accountability for the harms Telenor has caused Myanmar people through its conduct and its dangerous divestment,” Yadanar Maung said in a press release. The charges have been issued by two of Norway’s law enforcement bodies. The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has led the charge on a potential sanctions breach, while the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) is investigating the company’s alleged complicity in crimes against humanity. The charge by the PST is in relation to Telenor’s transfer of sanctioned technical equipment to the Myanmar junta during the sale of Telenor Myanmar in 2022. Norway placed sanctions on Myanmar as early as July 2018 in response to the brutal campaign against Rohingya in Rakhine State. As a condition of the sale of Telenor Myanmar to M1 Group, a Lebanese investment company, the Myanmar military demanded that the M1 Group must sell a majority of the shares to a Myanmar company, which resulted in the junta-linked Shwe Byain Phyu conglomerate purchasing an 80 percent stake in the company. Therefore, as part of the sale, Telenor’s surveillance technology was transferred to a Myanmar military-linked company, and would continue operating in the country, in violation of Norwegian sanctions. PST said that the transfer of communications equipment as part of the sale was prohibited under Norway’s Sanctions Act. It also noted that the company was required to seek prior approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before making the transfer, which it allegedly failed to do. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported Telenor to the PST in June 2023, but the case was rejected in May 2024. Protesters urge Telenor to stop the sale of its Myanmar subsidiary in 2022 (Democracy Movement Strike Committee – Dawei) The second charge laid against Telenor is one of complicity in the Myanmar junta’s crimes against humanity. During Tuesday’s press conference, the Kripos representative said that Telenor had repeatedly disclosed sensitive customer data, including historical traffic data, call logs, and location data, for hundreds of pro-democracy activists to the military for an extended period following the 2021 military coup, and before its exit from Myanmar. In October of last year, a lawsuit was filed against the company by two Myanmar civil society organisations and the widow of a prominent activist who was executed by the military following his arrest shortly after Telenor handed over his data. “I’m terribly disturbed and shocked by the fact that Telenor gave away my husband’s teledata to the junta just a few weeks before he was arrested and executed. That’s why I am bringing this lawsuit,” said Tha Zin Nyunt Aung, whose husband, hip hop artist-turned-MP Phyo Zayar Thaw, was executed by the regime in July 2022. According to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), Telenor shared the data connected to 536 user numbers with the regime, despite the “great risk that customers could be arrested if the company shared personal data with the junta.” Telenor has publicly admitted to disclosing the data, but claims it was forced to do so out of fear for its employees’ safety. “Our employees risked imprisonment, torture or the death penalty if the military authorities’ orders were not complied with. This was a very demanding situation in which we found that we had no real choice,” Telenor’s spokesperson said in a statement released in response to the charges against the company. Kripos’ preliminary assessment revealed that during the period of widespread and systematic abuses against civilians by the military following the 2021 coup, providing sensitive data of individuals who faced or were experiencing persecution essentially aided in the regime’s crimes against humanity. Kripos added that even if Telenor was found to be complicit in these crimes, it did not mean that the company shared the regime’s intention. Although Myanmar’s military has not yet been formally found guilty by international courts for crimes against humanity, its ongoing atrocities against the population have been well-documented. The persistent push for accountability Telenor completed the sale of Telenor Myanmar to the Lebanese investment company, M1 Group, in March 2022. The Shwe Byain Phyu conglomerate reportedly took control of 80 percent of the company’s shares shortly thereafter. The M1 group had already established a cosy relationship with Myanmar’s military through business deals and a substantial donation to Lt-.Gen. Myint Maw, head of the Naypyitaw Regional Military Command, in the lead up to the Rohingya genocide, according to Justice for Myanmar. Following the closure of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry’s complaint regarding Telenor’s sanctions breach, Justice for Myanmar and the ICJ submitted a new allegation and substantial evidence in late 2024. Again, the PST discontinued the case. In a third attempt to hold Telenor accountable, Justice for Myanmar and the ICJ appealed the decision to a higher Norwegian authority, the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, in late 2025, including accusations that Telenor had aided and abetted the regime’s crimes against humanity. The prosecutor’s office urged the PST to investigate further, and in March 2026, an investigation was opened into both charges. According to the Kripos and PST representatives at the press conference on Tuesday, at this stage investigations were only ongoing against the company and not against any affiliated companies or individuals. They added that the investigation was expected to be a lengthy process, but did not provide a timeline. If found guilty, the company would face a fine and possible confiscation. The move would also mark a significant development in holding companies accountable for actions impacting civilians.

Norway charges Telenor with dual human rights and sanction breaches

Norwegian law enforcement raided Telenor’s HQ on Tuesday as part of a new investigation into sanction breaches and complicity in the regime’s crimes against humanity

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