Whistleblower group Justice For Myanmar (JFM) has welcomed the charges brought by police in Norway against Norwegian telecoms giant Telenor over alleged sanctions violations and complicity in crimes against humanity linked to its operations in Myanmar following the 2021 military coup up until it exited the country and sold off its operations in March 2022.
“Telenor must be held fully accountable for the harm it caused, including in aiding and abetting the junta’s arbitrary arrests, torture, killings and executions through knowingly providing it with personal data,” Yadanar Maung, the JFM spokesperson, said in a statement on Sept. 16. Norwegian police searched Telenor’s headquarters in Fornebu, Norway on Sept. 15, the same day charges were filed.
The International Commission of Jurists Norway jointly filed a complaint against Telenor with JFM in December 2024, alleging that the company breached Norwegian sanctions regulations by maintaining sanctioned surveillance equipment and transferring it to a military-linked buyer when it exited Myanmar. The complaint was rejected without investigation before a further complaint was filed in October 2025.
The latest complaint alleges that Telenor aided and abetted crimes against humanity by sharing sensitive user data on Myanmar citizens with the regime, which has been accused of widespread human rights abuses since the 2021 coup. Telenor stated that it would cooperate fully with the police investigation and that no individuals from the company had been charged or were under investigation.
“Our employees risked imprisonment, torture or the death penalty if the military authorities’ orders were not complied with,” David Fidjeland, the Telenor media relations director, stated on Sept. 15. “We found that we had no real choice and that we could not put our employees’ lives at risk,” he added.
Telenor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian government, entered the Myanmar market in 2014—as telecoms in the country liberalized–but sold its Myanmar operations to Lebanese investment company M1 Group in March 2022.
“We have for a long time awaited a serious and independent police investigation, and we are happy that this now seems to be the case,” said Terje Einarsen, the ICJ Norway board chairperson.
