Thread by @BuzzFeedNews

The plan: Stage a fake kidnapping to help a North Korean defector escape.

But when the mission failed, Christopher Ahn found himself wanted by international authorities.

This is the story of how a desire to help may land a man in prison 🧵
buzzfeednews.com/article/bradle…

In 2019, Ahn joined a Cheollima Civil Defense mission to help a North Korean diplomat in Madrid defect. To protect the diplomat's family, Cheollima, an activist group, would pretend to kidnap him at the embassy.

Ahn had worked with Cheollima before, but this was a step up.

Things went to plan, until a woman who believed the siege was real jumped out of the embassy and alerted police.

Once the phones started ringing, the diplomat was spooked. He called off his defection and asked Cheollima to leave.

Cheollima told the FBI what happened, and agents told Ahn there was credible intelligence that North Korea wanted to assassinate him.

But unbeknownst to Ahn, the FBI was also working with Spanish authorities — who were treating the incident as a real kidnapping.

The diplomat told Spanish prosecutors that Cheollima volunteers tried to force him to defect — but the diplomat had to say this to avoid retribution, Ahn says.

So some weeks later, Ahn was arrested by the FBI. And now the Justice Department is pursuing extradition for him.

Our reporting found that Ahn was a helping hand who wanted to free someone from the Kim regime.

And we reviewed a partial video clip during the fake kidnapping that shows the defector laughing and seemingly relaxed (Cheollima has not released the full video).

But now Ahn faces extradition. His lawyer has argued that because Spain has diplomatic relations with North Korea, it makes it much easier for the country to assassinate him. buzzfeednews.com/article/bradle…