In the autumn of 2021, Sajjad Hussain (45) and eleven people in the circle around him were sentenced after a long legal marathon in what is known as the Lime case.
The sentence included serious human trafficking, a number of breaches of the Working Environment Act and several serious frauds. According to the court, at least ten Pakistanis were brought to Norway to work in the Lime chain’s stores in Eastern Norway.
Claims the police cheated with the evidence
Three people charged
Hussain was singled out as the ringleader and sentenced to eight years in prison in the Borgarting Court of Appeal. He was also ordered to confiscate a total of NOK 26 million, among other things to secure the compensation claims of the aggrieved parties.
A year and a half after the judgment in the Court of Appeal, Dagbladet is informed that three other people who were convicted in the Lime case are again the subject of a police investigation – following accusations that they must have pressured at least one of the victims to withdraw the compensation claim.
According to Dagbladet’s information, Sajjad Hussain is not among those charged in the new case, which is being investigated by the police in Lillestrøm.
– I can confirm that the case has a link to the Lime complex, without going into more detail. It is a violation of section 251 of the Criminal Code, which deals with illegal coercion, says police attorney Christoffer Wiborg Seyfarth in the East police district to Dagbladet.
Specifically, the section of the law in question aims to target “anyone who by punishable or other unlawful behavior or by threatening such behavior forces someone to do, tolerate or omit something”.
MAIN MAN: Sajjad Hussain (45) was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the Lime case. He is not among those who have so far been charged in the new investigation. Photo: Øistein Norum Monsen / Dagbladet
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Reported the case myself
The three accused were sentenced to relatively short prison sentences for their roles in the Lime case, but they were held responsible for parts of the restitution and compensation sum – a total of several million kroner.
Seyfarth will not go into who or how many are charged in the new investigation.
– What I can say is that there are several accused, he says.
Dagbladet knows that the police believe that the victim must have been pressured to sign a document stating that the compensation claim from the Lime case has been withdrawn.
Seyfarth does not wish to comment on this information. He also does not want to go into more detail about whether there is more than one person offended.
Lene Tønset has been appointed as legal counsel for the man.
– I can confirm that a report has been submitted by my client, which has resulted in the police laying charges. Beyond that, I have no comment for the sake of the investigation and its outcome, she says.
ILLEGAL COERCION: Police prosecutor Christoffer Wiborg Seyfarth leads the investigation into the “new” Lime case. Photo: Øistein Norum Monsen / Dagbladet
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Pleads not guilty
The police are reticent to comment on Dagbladet’s information about the ongoing investigation.
– There is still considerable investigation, both technical and various interrogations. Due to, among other things, extensive clauses in the case, I cannot go into investigative steps that have been carried out or are to be carried out – nor the result of these, says Christoffer Wiborg Seyfarth.
Lawyer Petter Bonde is defending the one accused.
– My client pleads not guilty. Beyond that, I do not want to comment on the investigation, he says.
Arvid Sjødin has recently taken over as defense counsel for the other person charged in the case.
– I have neither seen the documents nor spoken to my client yet. I can therefore not say anything now, he says to Dagbladet.
The third defender, Patrick Lundevall-Unger, states that his client also denies criminal guilt.
– Otherwise, I have no comment, he says.
The police must delete wiretapping recordings of an Oslo lawyer (35) in the Lime case
Five and a half years
The Lime case was the most extensive case that has ever been settled in Norwegian courts.
It all started with a coordinated police operation against the Lime chain’s stores in Eastern Norway back in 2014, following suspicions of financial crime and human trafficking.
It then took a full five and a half years from the time the trial began in the Oslo District Court, until a verdict was handed down in the Borgarting Court of Appeal in September 2021.
A total of twelve people eventually appeared on the dock in the appeal case. The judgment from the Court of Appeal itself is 1,248 pages long, while the indictment alone was 50 pages long.
For Sajjad Hussain, it ended up with eight years in prison. Both Hussain and the prosecution appealed the sentence to the Supreme Court, but both were dismissed.
