In the indictment, the prosecuting authority announces a claim that Espen Andersen Bråthen (38) will be sentenced to compulsory mental health care.
The man is charged with five murders, as well as for inflicting serious injuries on several people on Kongsberg, on the evening of 13 October last year. Bråthen was armed with a bow and arrow and stabbing weapons. Several of the killings took place indoors, at the victims’ homes.
All the deceased were killed with stabbing weapons, it appears from the indictment.
State Attorney Andreas Christiansen describes the indictment as “serious and extensive”.
The state administrator: Received proper health care
– I have no comments on the indictment. The claim is as expected and it would be surprising if something else was signaled, says Bråthen’s defender, Elling Dahl, to Dagbladet.
Since the incident, Bråthen has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Dahl says that Bråthen is still staying at an institution.
– It is something he still needs, says Dahl.
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Thrown knife at police
Bråthen was arrested more than half an hour after the attack started inside a grocery store.
According to the indictment, Bråthen threw a knife at three police officers when they tried to arrest him.
There was a sword in the wall
The public prosecutor writes in the indictment that they will seize a large number of weapons. Among them three bows, ten knives and a sword.
State Attorney Christiansen tells Dagbladet that the accused did not have all the weapons with him when he was arrested.
– There are also reservations about seizing weapons found in the apartment, he says.
Dagbladet has previously that a friend of Bråthen saw one swords stand placed in the wall in his apartment. It is unclear whether this is the same sword that will now be seized.
CANNOT BE PUNISHED: Espen Andersen Bråthen is charged with the murder of five people on Kongsberg. Photo: Screenshot from video / NTB
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Over 30 offended
In addition to those killed, there are 26 victims in the case. The case is scheduled to go to Buskerud District Court in Hokksund on 18 May. The court has set aside more than four weeks for the main hearings.
Since the attacks on 13 October, Bråthen has been admitted to a closed psychiatric ward through a decision on involuntary hospitalization. Three forensic psychiatric experts who have assessed him have concluded that he had a strongly deviant state of mind this evening. This means that he was probably insane and thus can not be punished.
Therefore, the PST sounded the terror alarm
Up to court
It is the psychiatrists Harald Brauer and Helge Haugerud as well as psychologist specialist Knut-Petter Langlo who have carried out the forensic psychiatric assessment of Bråthen.
It is up to the court to make a final decision on whether Bråthen was insane or not when he killed five people and injured a number of others in Kongsberg center last autumn. Previously, the term psychotic was used at the time of the crime, but this was changed by an amendment to the Penal Code in 2020.
Shortly after the attack, the police said that one of the possible hypotheses was that it was terrorism. Shortly afterwards, the police abandoned this hypothesis. The public prosecutor emphasizes in the press release that Bråthen has not been charged under the terrorism legislation.
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