Norwegian Foreign Ministry declined giving diplomatic immunity to a Saudi security team weeks before murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi noting the Oslo-based rights activist Iyad al-Baghdad of the incident.

A request by Saudi Arabia over Norway's granting diplomatic mission to a 10-man Saudi security team was rejected by Norwegian government back in summer 2018.
 
The request was made just weeks before Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by hit squad in its Istanbul consulate on 2 October 2018.
 
Norwegian Foreign Ministry reportedly rejected the request by Riyadh but refused to comment on the circumstances of the refusal.
 
"As these were mainly persons who were to have internal tasks at the embassy, nine of the 10 persons were registered as administrative/technical personnel in accordance with normal practice," Guri Solberg, spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. 

"One of the 10 people was registered as a diplomat based on their role and responsibilities. In practice, there is little difference in the degree of immunity and privileges granted to diplomatic, administrative, and technical personnel." 
 
Following Riyadh's request, the Norwegian Security Service (PST) informed Baghdadi, a prominent activist who has campaigned against human rights violations by the Saudi government, about the incident.