Tor Mikkel Wara had the last word in the fight for his partner to be acquitted



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By Peter Talos

The case is at stake

After five weeks in court, the final day of testing was long and enjoyable. Next week, the prosecution and defense will do their part to convince the judges of their opinions on the conviction or acquittal when the process takes place.

The most serious crime of which Laila Anita Bertheussen is accused are threats against government officials and attempts to influence the activities of the government or the Storting under article 115 of the Penal Code.

On Friday, the courthouse was a stage where advocates for the 55-year-old would weaken this part of the prosecution’s case.

Wara: So keep going

When all the other witnesses had finished in court on Friday, Bertheussen’s co-habitation and, in the opinion of the prosecution, the biggest victim in the case, then-Justice Minister Tor Mikkel Wara, again took the witness stand. He said that, unlike the police, he had seen footprints in the garden the day after the car caught fire in front of the house on Vækerøveien in Oslo. He now regrets not saying this when he was questioned after Bertheussen was accused of setting the car fire on March 14, 2019.

– The big question is probably why I was not asked about these leads, Wara said when the prosecution asked questions about this new information.

The fire on the night of March 10 of last year was the turning point in the investigation, which until then had been directed exclusively at an external perpetrator. The coincidence of coincidences around the fire and the absence of other probable traces led to Bertheussen being charged.

– Do not save

In the same way, Wara replied that she had an SMS exchange with her former colleague at the Ministry of Justice, the Minister of Social Security Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde after she and her husband, the representative of the Storting, Christian Tybring-Gjedde , received on January 29, 2019 a threatening letter in the mail of which Bertheussen is now accused. for having sent.

– Did you perceive that they were afraid of the letter? Asked Bertheussen’s defender, Bernt Heiberg.

– No, I didn’t understand that, Wara replied.

Tracks connected together

The prosecution ended its presentation of evidence against Bertheussen with a visually compelling compilation of technical data that they believe excludes other perpetrators. With a video of nine hours and ten minutes, with data collected from three cameras, the defendant’s mobile phone and the alarm and surveillance system of the house, the court was shown a chronological chain of indications that point to the 55-year-old man.

The film covered every second in the period from Saturday March 9 and the night to March 10, when Bertheussen and Wara’s car began to burn. Video showed the only six-camera operation shutting down for nearly seven minutes just before the fire.

At the same time, the alarm system detected that the exit door was open for several minutes before it was closed again and the camera was turned on. The fire was then visible on camera footage.

While the surveillance outside the home was active again and the fire raged, Bertheussen’s phone was connected to a charger and no further movements were recorded until police woke her, apparently from a deep sleep, an hour later without her record neither the fire nor the riot. police cars and firefighters outside the windows.

I was drunk alone

The defendant explained earlier the night that she was home alone, was very intoxicated and had taken a sleeping pill.

He explained the open door saying that the cat was normally allowed in and out. He has also said that there were constant problems with the property’s surveillance cameras and that he was constantly turning the cameras on and off. (NTB)

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