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The other man who has been arrested and charged with murder or complicity in the murder of Ørjan-Helmer Gundersen Solum (24) in Arendal, will be taken into custody on Wednesday.
– He’s desperate and doesn’t understand anything. That’s the preliminary impression left on me after a brief phone conversation with him on Tuesday, the man’s defender, attorney Thor Bache-Wiig, told Dagbladet.
He has been the defendant’s attorney for 15 years.
– He has several convictions for speculation related to drugs, says Bache-Wiig.
According to Fædrelandsvennen, the latest defendant is a 43-year-old man with multiple convictions for drug offenses and lost profits and violence.
Live by the mines
It will have a residential address in the same area as the Steinsås mines in Arendal, where Ørjan-Helmer Gundersen Solum was found killed by divers on May 19 this year.
The 24-year-old’s last reliable observation was on the afternoon of March 25 of this year.
Later, an acquaintance took him to a block of flats in the same area and waited for him in the car while he ran errands around the block. Ørjan did not reappear, police have previously said the driver’s explanation is credible.
It was Tuesday morning that Agder police arrested the 43-year-old. Police say they have known the man before, but do not indicate where he was detained.
– The background to the arrest is that we have come so far in the investigation that we believe there are good reasons to suspect the person in question. He is charged with murder or complicity in Solum’s murder, police attorney Vanja Bruvoll told Dagbladet.
– Is there a relationship between the deceased and the accused?
– For the sake of the ongoing investigation, I cannot comment on the man’s relationship with Solum or with the other defendant, says the police attorney.
It was on May 19 of this year that Solum was found dead in the Steinsås mines in Arendal. The mines are located very close to where he was last seen alive on March 25.
The arrest is the second in the case. On Tuesday, December 8, a man in his 30s was arrested and charged with murder or complicity in Solum’s murder.
Various charges
Man arrested and charged with murder
On December 8, a man in his 30s was arrested, charged with murder or complicity in the murder, and placed in preventive detention.
– He’s shocked by the arrest, his attorney Anne Marstrander-Berg told Dagbladet after the arrest last week.
Not weakened
Bruvoll emphasizes that suspicion against the man in his 30s has not weakened as a result of the new arrest in the case.
Both defendants have previously been questioned as witnesses in the case.
Marstrander-Berg is not informed of the evolution of the case.
– I have not been informed of a new arrest or development of the case. My client is isolated with a letter and visit ban until next Thursday. The state is the same about what I can answer on behalf of the client: that at the prison meeting last Thursday he denied criminal guilt and opposed the incarceration, he tells Dagbladet.
One of the parents of the 24-year-old dead, with whom Dagbladet has been in contact after the second arrest and charge, also refers to the police.
