Telenor—Norway charged Telenor with complicity in crimes against humanity over Myanmar military data-sharing

Norway's national criminal investigation service (Kripos) charged Telenor with complicity in crimes against humanity, and Norway's domestic security service (PST) separately charged the company with breaching the Sanctions Act, following a joint raid on Telenor's Fornebu headquarters on September 15, 2026. Prosecutors allege that Telenor Myanmar Ltd (TML) repeatedly handed the military junta customer call logs, names, addresses, and location data after the February 2021 coup, which the junta used to track, arrest, and imprison dissidents; documents show roughly 500 customers were put at risk of arrest, and a civil suit alleges the data sharing contributed to the 2022 execution of activist-lawmaker Phoe Zeya Thaw. The Sanctions Act charge concerns Telenor's March 2022 sale of TML, which allegedly included surveillance equipment transferred without required Foreign Ministry authorization. Telenor, 54%-owned by the Norwegian state, said its employees faced imprisonment or death if they had refused military orders and that it is cooperating fully with prosecutors. The charges are described as among the first criminal prosecutions of a major telecom for authoritarian surveillance complicity.