Suspected Nobel Peace Prize leak 'highly likely' due to espionage

A possible leak that preceded the announcement of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was “highly likely” the result of espionage, the Nobel Institute told Norwegian media on Oct 11.

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The odds of Ms Machado winning the prize jumped from 3.75 per cent to nearly 73 per cent overnight from Oct 9 to 10 on the predictive betting platform Polymarket.

But no expert or media outlet had mentioned her as being among the favourites for the prize, with the announcement made just a few hours later in Oslo.

“Highly likely it’s espionage,” the director of the Nobel Institute and secretary of the Nobel committee, Dr Kristian Berg Harpviken, told Norway’s TV2 television.

On Oct 10, the head of the Nobel committee said he did not believe Ms Machado’s name had been leaked.