Norwegian man wanted over Israeli-led pager attack goes missing
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Jose, 39, the founder of a Bulgarian company allegedly involved in the pager supply chain, went missing during a work trip to the US on 17 September.
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Rinson Jose, 39, the founder of a Bulgarian company reportedly involved in the pager supply chain, disappeared last week while on a business trip to the United States. (Social media)
Norwegian police have issued an international search warrant for a Norwegian-Indian man, Rinson Jose, allegedly linked to the terrorist Israeli electronic attacks on Lebanon.
"Yesterday, the Oslo police district received a missing person report in connection with the pager case. A missing persons case has been opened and we have sent out an international warrant for the person," the police said.
Jose, 39, the founder of a Bulgarian company allegedly involved in the pager supply chain, went missing during a work trip to the US on 17 September.
Despite being contacted by Reuters, Jose refused to comment on the pager case and has since been unreachable. His company, Norta Global Ltd, was investigated by Bulgarian authorities, though no evidence was found linking it to the manufacturing or exporting of the pagers.
The explosions resulted in the deaths of dozens, including 12 people in an initial pager blast and 25 more when walkie-talkies detonated in Lebanon.
Read more: Taiwan prosecutors question four over exploding pagers
On September 21, the Hungarian government announced that intelligence services conducted multiple interviews with the CEO of BAC Consulting, a Budapest-based firm linked to the attacks.
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo had said at the time that the model of pagers used in the detonations in Lebanon was produced by BAC Consulting, claiming that it only licensed its brand to the company and was not involved in manufacturing the devices.
Since the attacks, the CEO, Barsony-Arcidiacono, has not been seen publicly. Neighbors report not having spotted her, and she has not responded to any calls or emails from Reuters. A visit to her residence in downtown Budapest yielded no response, and her apartment, once accessible, is now closed off.
The Hungarian government confirmed on Saturday that its intelligence services interviewed Barsony-Arcidiacono several times since the explosions. It classified BAC Consulting as a "trading-intermediary company" without a manufacturing presence in Hungary, claiming that the pagers had never entered the country.
It is worth noting that BAC Consulting's website, which was taken down later in the week, provided little insight into its actual operations in Hungary, and its registered address was listed as a serviced office in a suburban area of Budapest.
Indian-born Rinson Jose, 39, was listed as the owner of a Bulgarian shell company that reportedly paid British-educated intermediary Cristiana Arcidiacono-Barsony £1.3million as part of a complex deal to obtain the exploding pagers. pic.twitter.com/Qhf3u5PFCR
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