It has been two years since the police beat at a petrol station in Kongsberg. Over the next two days, the case will be heard in Norway’s highest court. The policeman was acquitted in the district court, and sentenced to 120 days in prison in the court of appeal – a sentence he appealed to the Supreme Court. The case is expected to be able to set a precedent, and his defenders, John Christian Elden and Heidi Reisvang, say the following before the case starts: – We will present a new report from the Norwegian Police Academy, which focuses on police studies. The case will have great principled and practical significance for how police officers are both to be trained and how they are to carry out their tasks. For the time being, they will not say anything about the content of the report to be presented. – We risk getting a practice where police officers become unsure whether the training and experience they have gained as police officers can make them criminally liable. A day and a half in court The policeman is asking for a full acquittal, and has appealed the Court of Appeal’s application of the law, case management and sentencing. He has claimed throughout that he feared for his own safety and that of his colleagues, and that the use of force was necessary since the main victim, Kevin Simensen, did not respond to this. – My clients have the complete opposite view of it. That is at the core of what the Supreme Court must assess, says aid lawyer Øystein Storrvik. The Bureau believes that the use of force went too far, but does not wish to comment on the case ahead of proceedings in the Supreme Court. First State Attorney Thomas Frøberg will prosecute the case for the prosecution. The judges in the Supreme Court have reviewed the case in advance, and the proceedings are expected to last a day and a half. First, the defenders must hold a procedure, before the prosecution and finally the legal aid must do the same. – Is no violent man news met the policeman before the weekend, when he allowed himself to be interviewed for the first time. – I think people see the video and think it’s a violent man, which I’m not. – How does it feel? – It is burdensome. It’s nothing special. It’s a stamp I’d rather have off me, because it has nothing to do with who I am, either as a police officer or as myself. Those who know me know that I am not a violent person. The policeman said in court that he feared a tense atmosphere would escalate into more noise, and grabbed Simensen’s arm to talk to him. Simensen pulled his arm, and the policeman tried to take control by putting him on the ground. He then hit Simensen repeatedly in the head. And it is the blows on the ground that the policeman is convicted of. – Didn’t know he was a policeman Kevin Simensen says he didn’t know it was a policeman who grabbed him. He was subjected to blows with both a clenched fist and a baton by the defendant. – I knew there were police there, but I didn’t realize that none of them intervened. It felt like I was suddenly attacked, even though I knew the police were there, said Simensen in the Court of Appeal in April. In the Borgarting Court of Appeal, the prosecutor asked for 60 days’ unconditional imprisonment. The court doubled this when he was found guilty. Published 12.11.2024, at 07.24
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