Criminal complaint filed against Norwegian politicians over complicity in Gaza genocide
A criminal complaint has been filed against several high-ranking Norwegian politicians, including the country’s prime minister, over their alleged complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The complaint alleges that officials responsible for Norway's sovereign wealth fund violated Norwegian laws incorporating Rome Statute provisions against genocide by overseeing investments with a high risk of contributing to war crimes, such as shares in arms firms exporting to Israel.
Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store, the finance minister and former Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, foreign minister Espen Barth Eide, and former finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum are named in the complaint.
Letters seen exclusively by Middle East Eye show that the Norwegian Prosecuting Authority has formally recommended that Kripos, the national criminal investigation service, investigate the complaint, overturning an earlier decision to dismiss it.
The complaint was submitted by Grandmothers Against Genocide (Grag), a Norwegian activist group, alongside an additional complaint by The Palestine Committee of Norway, which further names the fund’s chief executive, Nicolai Tangen, and the governor of the Norwegian central bank, Ida Wolden Bache, as respondents.
Norway’s $2.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which is formally known as the Government Pension Fund of Norway (GPFG) and is the largest single investor in the world, divested from 23 Israeli companies in 2025, citing violations of its ethical investment policy.
But it kept stakes in 29 other Israeli companies amid backlash from the US in September, when State Department officials said they were “very troubled” by Norway’s decision to divest.
It also maintains investments in multinational arms firms, such as Leonardo and ThyssenKrupp, that directly supply the Israeli military, which has killed over 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.
A proposal for blanket divestment from companies implicated in Israeli war crimes was rejected by the Norwegian parliament in June after it failed to receive support from the governing Labour Party, which voted with conservative opposition parties against the bill.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories, wrote to Stoltenberg in May last year, warning that the fund's ongoing investments in companies implicated in war crimes risked putting Norway in breach of international law.
‘Contributing to crimes against humanity’
Kirsti Maehle, the co-founder of Grag, said that prosecution of the officials responsible for the fund would provide “a much-needed guiding principle for our elected representatives who completely turn a blind eye to the suffering of the victims”.
“They sit in our parliament, the Storting, and vote in favour of the investments. That amounts to voting over contributing to crimes against humanity, which is absolutely outrageous,” she said.
Terje Einarsen, professor of law at the University of Bergen, provided legal advice in a personal capacity to the complaint.
He told MEE that “the Norwegian government leaders have probably been fully aware of the principal crimes and the actual contributions by several of the companies partly owned by the fund”.
But he said it is “not a necessary legal requirement that the Norwegian politicians personally have meant or wanted to contribute to the relevant atrocity crimes.”
“They may thus be legally responsible for aiding and abetting one or more crimes,” he said.
A 118-page report documenting the fund’s investments in companies implicated in war crimes by the academic-led group Historians for Palestine was published in June and was subsequently submitted as evidence alongside the complaint.
Politicians 'are responsible'
Pal Nygaard, professor of economic history at the Norwegian Business School and co-author of the report, said that the ongoing investments “strengthen Israel’s impunity”.
“It is important that the fund follows its ethical guidelines and acts as a truly responsible investor, and that means divesting from all companies that contribute to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, their apartheid system, and their genocide,” he said.
'The continued investments in companies that actively contribute to Israel’s violation of international law equals accepting these mass atrocities'
- Pal Nygaard, Norwegian Business School
“In the end, it is the politicians who have designed this system for responsible investments, and they are then also ultimately responsible to make sure the fund and the Council on Ethics manages the fund’s investments accordingly,” he added.
“The continued investments in companies that actively contribute to Israel’s violation of international law equals accepting these mass atrocities.”
A letter seen by MEE shows that prosecutors have formally asked Kripos to notify the individuals named in the complaint of the pending investigation against them.
Grag submitted evidence to Norway's Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs on Tuesday concerning the fund’s investments.
The Norwegian Prime Minister's Office, the GPFG, Kripos and the Norwegian Prosecuting Authority were approached for comment.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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