Controversy over the prosecution – VG

The four-page indictment describes attacks on democracy through arson, damage and threats against leading politicians, including his own partner, former Justice Minister Tor Mikkel Wara.

She herself has always refused to be left behind.

PST believes that the work “Ways of seeing” is the background of the threats. A film of the house of the cohabiting couple was screened in the play, to which Laila Anita Bertheussen reacted strongly, among other things in a VG article.

When the trial begins at the Oslo District Court on Tuesday at 09:00, the prosecution will give their introductory speech, where the prosecutor Frederik Ranke will point out the evidence they believe supports the serious charge.

Background: This is how they took her

The case is special for several reasons. First, the section on attacks on democracy is rarely used, and secondly, it is special that Bertheussen is said to have threatened her own partner for a longer period.

Former Islamist Mohyeldeen Mohammad has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for threatening the left-wing politician and current Culture Minister Abid Raja. In 2016, a woman was convicted under the section for pressing a shaving foam cake base against the head of Minister Solveig Horne (Frp).

According to the court, the two defendants had the alleged intention, or intention, to prevent or influence the activities of politicians.

Get updated: this is the case for Bertheussen:

The question is whether Bertheussen’s alleged threats are affected by the section. Namely, UiO law professor Alf Petter Høgberg says no.

– sympathy

The professor believes that Bertheussen’s alleged purpose in the various incidents was not to influence democracy, but rather an attempt to gain sympathy after a movie of the house was shown in the play “Ways of Seeing.”

– Ergo, the subjective guilt criteria have not been met and the section has not been met objectively either. I cannot understand how democracy can be influenced by Bertheussen’s actions, Høgberg told TV 2.

Bertheussen’s defender, John Christian Elden, says Høgberg’s remarks will be an issue in court.

– Our opinion here is that criminal law professor Høgberg is right, and that the PST circumstances accuses Bertheussen of not being affected by the serious disposition of the prosecution. Of course, we will come back to this in more detail in the proceedings at the end of the case, Elden tells VG.

– We believe that we are on safe legal ground when the indictment has been issued in accordance with article 115, says the prosecutor Frederik G. Ranke of the National Prosecutor’s Office to VG.

The Kolberg case

The Oslo District Court has previously dealt with a similar case in which there were family ties between the accused and the offended.

In 2012, a man was convicted of attacking democracy after he threatened to kill Labor politician Martin Kolberg. The man was Kolberg’s stepson.

According to the verdict, the stepson had various motives for threatening Kolberg, and these were largely personal, not political. But the court noted that the stepson had also attracted Kolberg’s work as a profile politician in the threats. The court then found it proven that the defendant had intentionally tried to influence Kolberg in his political activities.

At the same time, the district court held that the threats were in the lower layer of the section because factors other than political ones seemed to dominate the defendant’s motivation.

UiO’s fellow Ingvild Bruce believes the tax authority has done the right thing in prosecuting Bertheussen under the section.

– While the purpose of the provision is primarily to protect politicians against people who try to prevent them from doing their job, it does not require the person in question to have this as their purpose or purpose. Therefore, it is enough that she understood that the actions were probably appropriate to influence Wara and the Tybring-Gjedde couple in their activities as minister and parliamentary representative, respectively. The fact that Bertheussen possibly had another purpose with the actions, for example, to make it appear that someone else had committed them, therefore does not prevent her from being convicted under the indictment, Bruce tells VG.

Witnesses and evidence

The judicial process begins Tuesday with an introductory conference to the prosecution and the defense, before Bertheussen himself has the opportunity to give a supposed gratuitous explanation.

A PST police officer will then explain about the investigation, before another officer reports on the threat assessments and security tips that were given to Wara in connection with the case.

During the first week, the court also obtained information about the PST’s search for Wara and Bertheussen’s home in Oslo. In the coming weeks, PST and Kripos policemen will take the witness stand, as well as close relatives of Bertheussen, a postman, Wara’s bodyguards, a security company, a linguist and the director of the work in question.

Bertheussen’s defender, attorney John Christian Elden, also called two journalists as witnesses, one from NRK and one from Dagbladet. The antecedents of the summons are due to the emails that the two journalists have received and that are linked to the case.

Furthermore, Tor Mikkel Wara himself will testify as offended in the case. The same applies to Tybring-Gjedde and Christian Tybring-Gjedde of the political couple Ingvil Smine.