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Former parliamentary representative Mazyar Keshvari (Frp) has been sentenced to eleven months in prison for fraud before the Storting.
Keshvari was sentenced on October 23, 2019 in the Nedre Romerike District Court to seven months in prison after submitting false travel invoices for NOK 450,000 to the Storting, but the prosecution appealed the case.
The sentence has now been increased and the former representative will now receive another four months in prison, a total of eleven.
The Supreme Court writes in its decision that “it has taken into account that the representative has made an unreserved confession.”
Abused trust
The verdict claims that Keshvari has “seriously” abused the trust that is held in members of the Storting.
– The Supreme Court has thus confirmed the prosecution’s opinion that the sentence imposed by the Court of Appeal was significantly too lenient, says prosecutor Monica Krag Pettersen in a press release on Wednesday.
The Eidsivating Court of Appeal agreed with the district court when the case went to court in May, but the prosecution authority appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has now sharpened the punishment against Storting representatives.
Confessed
When the case reached the Nedre Romerike district court last year, Keshvari confessed and apologized.
– I want to start by giving an unreserved apology for my actions. I want to apologize to my friends, colleagues, family, the Storting as an institution and the Norwegian people for the fact that in a difficult period in my life I made mistakes and acted badly. It hurts a lot, Keshvari said.
In all, he turned in 73 travel invoices for trips he hadn’t been on.
In connection with the trial, Keshvari resigned from the Progress Party in October last year. It was reported that he was ill earlier that month.
– All the time I have been concerned about recognizing the wrong I did, cleaning up and assuming the consequences. That is why I am resigning from Frp so that what I have done cannot in any way be linked to the party that I have used all my adult life, he said at the time.
