that the government of Prime Minister Kåre Willoch knew that he was under suspicion of espionage, he was admitted so as not to reveal the suspicions harboured by the authorities. The trial led to a heated and extensive public debate about the Treholt case in Norway. The controversy concerned the evidence, and lack thereof, against Treholt, the conduct of the police and prosecuting authorities, and what was viewed as lenient treatment of Treholt while he was under suspicion. Incarceration and release Treholt was incarcerated in Drammen Prison from 1984 to 1985. He was transferred to Ila Prison, a maximum security prison, in 1985. In 1986, prison officials discovered that he planned to break out, and he was swiftly transferred to another maximum security prison for longterm inmates, Ullersmo Prison. On 3 July 1992, he was reprieved by the Labour government of Gro Harlem Brundtland. His pardon by Brundtland's Labour government in 1992, was controversial. Treholt was imprisoned for more than eight years. 2008 Criminal Cases Review Commission rejection of case review On 15 December 2008, the Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission ruled that the case would not be reviewed. The decision was final and could not be appealed. As a result of the decision, the prosecutor who handled the case in 2008, Stein Vale, wrote a book to summarize the case. The book – Teppefall i Treholtsaken ("Curtain falls on the Treholt case") – was published in September 2009. The chairwoman of the review commission, Janne Kristiansen, was appointed head of the Norwegian Police Security Service, the descendant organization of the Police surveillance service (Politets overvåkningstjeneste). Kristiansen and the PST would be defending the former POT from allegations of evidence tampering later on. 2010 claims by Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen In September 2010, a new book by the con artist Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen, who then claimed to be a private investigator, claimed that the searches of Treholt's apartment had not taken place and that one of the pieces of evidence presented in court had been fabricated by the police. On 18 September 2010, the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten wrote that an anonymous former counter-intelligence employee claimed Treholt's and his lawyer's claim of evidence fabrication was true, but a few days later the anonymous alleged former employee withdrew many of his claims, stating that he did not know. The Attorney General asked the Criminal Cases Review Commission to look at the case again