It is the Bureau that investigates cases involving police officers. When a case has been investigated in the investigation department, the head of prosecution investigations writes a recommendation. The case is then sent to the head of the Bureau for a prosecution decision. Terje Nybøe, the head of the Bureau. Photo: Jorunn Hatling / news The chief, Terje Nybøe, is not bound by the recommendation from the investigation department. A case is only decided by the Bureau when the chief has made a decision to prosecute. In this case, the chief chose to bring charges against the police officer. The investigation department, for its part, thought he should be fined. The Bureau confirms this in an e-mail to news. John Christian Elden, the defender of the accused policeman, thinks both are wrong. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news – After the case had been fully investigated, the investigative department proposed that the case should be decided by a preliminary hearing. My client denied guilt, and asked for the case to be dropped instead. Nybøe brought charges, and then it must be tried in court, says John Christian Elden to news. He is the policeman’s defender. The policeman is accused of having practiced violence against another person, and of grossly negligently breaching his duty. He pleads not guilty. Elden and the accused man disagree with the assessments of both the investigative unit and the head of the Bureau. – We believe both are wrong, and that there is no basis for criminal guilt following the indictment. We will return to this in court where it belongs, says Elden. The policeman was taken out of service when the prosecution decision came. Several punches to the face On the night of Sunday 30 October last year, 26-year-old Kevin Simensen was hit with a fist and baton by the police. Simensen and two friends were on their way home from the city, after being thrown out of a nightclub in Kongsberg. On the way home they met a police patrol at Esso. Here, surveillance cameras show how Simensen was laid on the ground and received several punches to the face. It was police chief Ole Bredrup Sæverud who himself chose to report the employee to the Special Service. Not unusual for different assessments The Bureau writes that it is “not unusual for different levels of the prosecution to assess both the evidence situation and the question of reaction differently. Which is also the case at the two levels of the Bureau.” It is the special unit that investigates cases where the police are involved. Photo: Mette Finborud Børresen news has asked the Bureau how the investigation department justifies its position, and what assessments were made when the chief chose to depart from the same position. The head of the Bureau, Terje Nybøe, writes this in an e-mail to news; “The specialist unit does not provide further comments about our internal case management and the various assessments that have been made. (…) The case is now before the court and our assessments will possibly appear there.” Two days have been set aside for the case in Buskerud district court, on 28 and 30 June.
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Disagreement in the Bureau about the police violence at Kongsberg – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
