On Friday 29 September, the now retired PST chief, Roger Berg, explained himself to the Storting’s Control and Constitution Committee. The core of the dispute is whether it was right to cancel a commemoration after the terrorist attack in Oslo last year. The event was canceled at the last minute following a recommendation from Berg. – We had information that what had been achieved in this attack had not been completed. It had great potential, we were surprised by the potential, and new lives could be lost. There was a will to strike again, Berg said in the open hearing. Several thousand people turned up at the Town Hall Square in Oslo on Monday 27 June, even though the solidarity marking was canceled at the last minute. Photo: Geir Olsen / NTB It is a representation that former member of the 25 June committee, Jacob Aasland Ravndal, does not recognize. had at the time, says Ravndal to news. It was in a meeting of the Government’s security committee (RSU) two days after the terror that the PST chief communicated that there were Islamists who were willing to strike again, according to Berg himself. – That way of formulating, I would say, is easy to interpret as something quite different from what the PST concluded at the same time this meeting was going on, namely that no information indicating planned follow-up attacks had been uncovered. Among other things, the evaluation committee has had full access from PST to the eight intelligence summaries and four intelligence reports on which Berg based his submission to the RSU meeting. Police director Benedicte Bjørnland maintained that it was right to recommend a postponement of the event when she explained herself to the Storting. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB Police director reprimanded Police director Benedicte Bjørnland received strong criticism in the 25 June committee’s report because she instructed the police in Oslo to turn around and cancel the planned solidarity demonstration in Oslo on Monday 27 June. The committee believed the recommendation was based on a misunderstanding about the Oslo police district’s knowledge of the threat picture. They concluded that the cancellation was a breach of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression in both the Constitution and human rights. Bjørnland said she received new, dangerous and classified information from PST chief Berg in the RSU meeting just hours before the marking was to take place. Found notes with telephone numbers – It is a description of a situational understanding that we do not recognize ourselves in, and which we also do not believe existed at the time, neither in PST nor in the police, says former committee member Ravndal. news has been in contact with the now retired PST manager, Roger Berg. He does not wish to comment on this matter. The 25 June committee believes that most of the information on which Berg based his presentation to the RSU was already known to the Oslo police district, because it came from their investigation of the case. Among other things, two handwritten notes with telephone numbers were found on the perpetrator when he was arrested. The committee believes that the police in Oslo knew that there were several people over whom they had no control when they first decided that the marking could be carried out. – Very misleading. The 25 June committee stands by its conclusions and reacts to the top police officers’ explanations during the hearing at the Storting. Committee member Jacob Aasland Ravndal and former PST manager Roger Berg in conversation after the hearing at the Storting earlier this autumn. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB – You get the impression that they must know something that we don’t. If so, it would be very surprising if there is any information we haven’t received, but I really don’t think so. This description is therefore very misleading, I must say, says Ravndal to news. The committee writes that PST and the police had not uncovered information about planned follow-up attacks. Among other things, PST himself wrote that in an intelligence summary which was approved at the same time as the RSU meeting was taking place. Several thousand turned up anyway on 25 June. The committee believes that the cancellation of the marking at Rådhusplassen led to a worsening of the security situation because many people turned up anyway. Photo: Annika Byrde / NTB The police in Oslo assumed that they were in an unclear threat situation, but believed it was better to carry out a solidarity marking on the Town Hall Square as a static event. When the commemoration was canceled just before it was to be carried out, many turned up anyway without the police having an organizer to deal with. Leader of the 5 June committee Pia Therese Jansen (centre) has been invited back to the control and constitution committee at the Storting. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB Ravndal says the cancellation at the last minute actually made the security situation worse because there were suddenly many dispersed groups with whom the police had no communication. On Thursday, the Storting’s control and constitutional committee invited the leader of the 25 June committee, Pia Therese Jansen, back to a new closed hearing. Ravndal will also participate as one of Jansen’s two assistants. Støre and Mehl supported the decision It has emerged that both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice supported the decision to cancel the commemoration at the RSU meeting. Minutes of the RSU meetings are made at the Prime Minister’s office, but these are secret and the 25 June committee has not been able to see them either. Therefore, the committee does not know what the head of the National Intelligence Service, Nils Andreas Stensønes, said at the meeting with the government. The terror warning PST received from the E-service five days before the terrorist attack stemmed from an operation run by the E-service in Norway. The Norwegian Institution for Human Rights (NIM) at Adele Matheson Mestad with subject director Vidar Strømme and special adviser Anine Kierulf have also been called in for a hearing on Thursday. After the 25 June committee’s report, NIM concluded that the decisions to cancel the solidarity marking were not a violation of human rights. NIM was asked to assess this by the Norwegian Police Directorate.
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Reacting to the top police officer’s explanation – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
