Norwegian accused by Greece of smuggling: ‘I’ve perhaps made people angry’
Al Jazeera
Tommy Olsen, who has long helped vulnerable people having rushed to Greece at the height of Europe’s refugee crisis, faces 20 years in jail on smuggling allegations.
Athens, Greece – Towards the end of May, the east Aegean island of Kos issued an arrest warrant for Tommy Olsen.
It will soon reach authorities in the town of Tromso, in the Norwegian Arctic, where the 51-year-old nursery teacher lives.
Olsen’s lawyers have already alerted local police “just to avert some over-eager policemen from showing up at my door early in the morning”, as Olsen put it.
“In the beginning, I will be taken in for questioning and the judge will decide if I will be extradited,” he told Al Jazeera. “The evidence we have seen so far is not even slim. I would say nonexistent.”
The Kos prosecutor accuses Olsen of being part of a criminal organisation that helped undocumented refugees and migrants cross from Turkey to Greece and gave them places to stay.
