– There is no basis for claiming that someone has deliberately withheld this information or deliberately contributed to incorrect information to the public prosecutor, and then later to the readmission commission. So this has been dismissed as no criminal offence, says Terje Nybøe, head of the Special Unit to news. Since spring, the Bureau has been investigating whether service errors were committed in the Baneheia case. The investigation has been aimed at former crime boss Arne Pedersen and the Agder police district as an enterprise. Several witness and suspect interviews have been carried out in the case, the Bureau states. Accusations of abuse Last week, the Attorney General asked that Viggo Kristiansen should be acquitted in the Baneheia case, for which he served 21 years. – I would like to strongly apologize for the injustice that has been committed, said Jørn Sigur Maurud. At the same time as the reopened case has been investigated by the Oslo police district, unknown information has come to light which has caused the Bureau of Police Affairs to investigate the Agder police district. At the beginning of August, the Bureau announced that they are investigating the police district for possible service errors. The background is a previous criminal case against Jan Helge Andersen that was investigated in 2009. When preparing the reinstatement petition, Agder police district did not inform about this. In February, news wrote about this case and another case, where allegations of abuse have been made against Andersen. It was instead stated that there was no information that Andersen had previously assaulted adults or children: “There is no information that Andersen has previously assaulted either adults or children, or that he has behaved threateningly or violently. He is also not referred to by anyone as aggressive, sexually explicit or as particularly concerned with minor children,” the state attorney in Agder wrote to the commission. In one of the cases, NOK 200,000 in victim compensation was paid to a woman. The incident must have happened in the 1990s, when Andersen was below the criminal minimum age. When news mentioned the accusations, none of the former or current leaders in Agder wanted to comment either. The new information caused the public prosecutor in Agder to react. – It is very unfortunate that the state prosecutors did not receive information from the Agder police district about a dismissed case against Jan Helge Andersen that concerned a crime of immorality in connection with Viggo Kristiansen’s petition for reopening, said first state prosecutor Erik Erland Holmen to news. The information was not forwarded to the Re-admission Commission, when Viggo Kristiansen requested that his case be reopened. Arne Pedersen led the investigation into the Baneheia case. In an interview with news this spring, the former head of the investigation said that he still believes the verdict from 2002 is correct. As is well known, Viggo Kristiansen was found guilty, but last week the Attorney General asked the Court of Appeal to acquit the 43-year-old.
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