On Monday, March 16, Tommy Olsen was arrested at his home in Tromso, Norway, after issue of an international arrest warrant from Greece, according to Norwegian media reports.

Since 2017, Olsen has run the NGO Aegean Boat Report, which -allegedly- helps “refugees” arriving by boat in Greece. For this work, he was, among other things, nominated for the Tromso Person of the Year award.

According to the newspaper “vg.no”, he has been charged by Greek authorities with espionage, smuggling people and criminal activity, with the charges carrying a sentence of up to 15 years in prison in Greece. On Monday night, the Tromso Court of First Instance ruled that Olsen can be extradited to Greece.

The court also ruled that Olsen will remain in custody for one week as release would pose a flight risk from the country.

The prosecutor, Bed Strand responded to Rishness that “Within the framework of the European arrest warrant, which has been signed by all EU countries, it is stipulated that we should not question foreign authorities, but respect their own judicial systems. Therefore, in the Norwegian judicial system we must rely on their suspicions, unless we consider them to be manifestly wrong. We have looked into the matter and found nothing that seems obviously wrong, none of the mandatory grounds for rejection are met.”

Olsen admitted at the hearing that he was in Greece, that he had contact with what he called “refugees” and that he recorded events concerning their arrival to Greece.