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Andrey Medvedev: Russian Wagner mercenary who fled to Norway arrested
Aformer Russian paramilitary commander who claimed asylum in Norway earlier this month has been arrested by police.
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Andrey Medvedev is being held under the Immigration Act, police spokesperson Jon Andreas Johansen told the BBC.
His lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes, told the BBC that the 26-year-old had been moved to a detention centre in the Oslo area.
Mr Medvedev, who crossed into Norway from Russia’s far north two weeks ago, is believed to be the first member of the Wagner Group to defect to the West.
The mercenary group - which is believed to have close ties to the Kremlin - has been used in many Russian operations. UK officials estimate it makes up 10% of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine.
The move came after “police concluded his situation was very dangerous,” Mr Risnes told the BBC. “This is what everyone wanted to avoid, but we are looking for solutions.”
Previously, he had been staying at a safe house.
Mr Medvedev’s arrest meant he would be under increased security, the lawyer added. But he emphasised that the former mercenary was still being treated as a witness.
Mr Medvedev claims to have witnessed a host of war crimes - including seeing “deserters being executed” by the Wagner Group’s internal security service - while fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the exiled Russian Gulagu. net rights group, said the excommander decided to leave after being informed that his contract would be extended indefinitely, and witnessing the group’s “terroristic methods”.
Mr Medvedev has indicated he is willing to testify against senior figures in the mercenary group.
In a statement seen by NRK, a special Norwegian police unit which interviewed Mr Medvedev said it was interested in his history in the group, which is believed to be heavily involved in two of Ukraine’s bloodiest recent battles - in Soledar and Bakhmut.
After news of Mr Medvedev’s arrest broke on Monday, Gulagu. net wrote on social media that the ex-commander had been told he would be deported from the country.
He feared being “brutally murdered” if returned to Russia, the founder of the rights group added. But the Norwegian authorities have not suggested Mr Medvedev would be deported.
Mr Risnes told the BBC that it was “absolutely not true” that his client was facing deportation, but said there may have been a misunderstanding between Mr Medvedev and Norwegian police.
Mr Osechkin did not immediately reply to a BBC request for comment, instead directing reporters to the group’s statement on social media.
“We are not looking to whitewash Medvedev. He has done many bad things in his life,” Mr Osechkin wrote on Facebook.
“But he has seen the light and is willing to cooperate with Norwegian and international authorities regarding the Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin,” he added.
Andrey Medvedev in uniform before defecting from Wagner
Brandon Tsay, 26, came face to face with the gunman before disarming him.
Monterey Park shooting: Hero who disarmed gunman had never seen a real gun
The 26-year-old man credited with disarming the California shooting suspect had never seen a real gun before.
Late on Saturday evening, working at his family-run dance hall in Alhambra, Brandon Tsay found himself staring at one pointed directly at him.
“My heart sank, I knew I was going to die,” Mr Tsay told the New York Times.
He did not know the gunman was believed to have killed 10 people just minutes earlier at another dance hall.
Mr Tsay lunged at the man and eventually disarmed him, averting another tragedy.
The gunman, identified as 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a van, according to police.
The mass shooting is one of the deadliest in California’s history. It began at around 22:22 local time on Saturday (06:22 GMT on Sunday) at the popular Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, about seven miles (11km) east of central Los Angeles.
Celebrations for Lunar New Year had been under way in the area, known for its large Asian population.
About 30 minutes after the shooting, the gunman arrived at a second location - the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in the nearby town of Alhambra - which is where Mr Tsay confronted him.
He was in the office near the lobby when he saw the gunman’s semi-automatic assault pistol pointed at him.
Mr Tsay, a computer coder, told ABC’s Good Morning America he did not recognise the man.
“It looked like he was looking for targets, people to harm,” Mr Tsay said.
When the gunman started prepping his weapon, Mr Tsay said “something came over him” and he knew he had to “disarm him otherwise everyone would have died”.
“When I got the courage, I lunged at him with both my hands,” he said.
When Mr Tsay finally wrestled away the weapon, he pointed it at the man and yelled: “Go, get the hell out of here!” After a moment, Mr Tsay said the man left and jogged to his van.
“Immediately I called police with the gun still in my hand,” he added.
Initially, Sheriff Robert Luna of Los Angeles County said it had been two people who wrestled the gun away, but CCTV shows only one person - Mr Tsay.
The Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio was closed on Sunday in the wake of the tragedy, but will reopen for classes on Monday.
Afghanistan professor on girls’ education: ‘Men must stand up for women’
gates are shut.”
Professor Ismail Mashal, who runs a private university in Kabul, says he has had enough of the restrictions women face in Afghanistan.
Slender and well dressed, he is a mixture of defiance and raw emotion.
“Even if they’re not allowed in - they should do this daily. It’s the least they can do to prove they are men,” he tells me, holding back tears.
In December the Taliban government announced female students at universities would no longer be allowed back - until further notice.
They said they were doing this to enable them to create an Islamic learning environment aligned with Sharia law practices, including changes to the curriculum.
Not long after the ban was announced, Prof Mashal went viral on social media after tearing up his academic records live on television, saying there was no point in gaining an education in today’s Afghanistan.
He says he won’t stay silent.
“The only power I have is my pen, even if they kill me, even if they tear me to pieces, I won’t stay silent now,” Prof Mashal says.
Prof Mashal’s university had 450 female students studying there and they took courses in journalism, engineering, economics and computer science. The Taliban’s education minister says these degrees should not be taught to women because they are against Islam and Afghan culture.
Prof Mashal says he could have kept his institution open for male students only - but instead decided to shut it completely.
