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To make a long story short
- Anders Østensvig Dale (45) from Nesodden, who has been imprisoned in Yemen since 2020, is accused of two murders and has been told that he must appear in court with the Yemeni Houthi movement.
- He denies the accusations via his sister, Cathrine.
- He has no right to a defense attorney, and Yemen practices the death penalty. The family also cannot help him financially as he is blacklisted by the UN.
- Since 2014, Dale has been charged by the Police Security Service (PST) for participation in the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He is wanted internationally via Interpol.
Sea view
Despite the fact that Norwegian Anders Østensvig Dale (45) has been imprisoned in Yemen for almost four years, he has sporadic contact with his family back home in Norway.
In a conversation with his sister Cathrine Østensvig Dale on Monday this week, he came up with new, startling information: Within three months, he will be brought before a court by the Houthi movement in Yemen, accused of having committed two murders.
– It is not specified who he is supposed to have killed. There is no indication of the place of the crime or the time when this should have happened. Anders says that this is a way of keeping him imprisoned. He has certainly not killed two people, says Dale, who reproduces what his brother has told her over the phone.
SISTER: Cathrine Østensvig Dale is working for the UN to remove her brother from the terrorist list, and for him to be allowed to come home to Norway after over ten years in Yemen. Photo: Private Show more
Want UD on the field
Anders Østensvig Dale is imprisoned in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which is controlled by the Islamist and Iran-backed Houthi movement.
– He will not have the right to a defender, and Yemen is a country that practices the death penalty. The family also has no opportunity to possibly try to provide legal assistance for the trial, as it is illegal to contribute money to someone who is on the terrorist list, says Cathrine Dale, and points out that the brother is blacklisted and sanctioned by the UN – as the only Norwegian.
Thus, it is forbidden for the family to help him financially.
Now Cathrine Dale believes that the new accusations against her brother make it all the more urgent that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) steps in and helps bring him home to Norway.
From earlier, the sister has been informed that Anders Østensvig Dale is said to have started a family with his wife and children in Yemen.
Supposed to have started a family in Yemen
– Defies all logic
The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has charged Dale with participation in a terrorist organization since 2014.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied that they will assist him in returning home to Norway, on the grounds that he traveled voluntarily to Yemen and has been there for more than ten years.
“Traveling to and settling in an area with the highest level of travel advice therefore implies an acceptance of risk, regardless of what the purpose of settling there was. This also includes Norwegian citizens who had to stay abroad with the purpose or consequence of evading criminal prosecution in Norway”, former Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt (Ap) responded to questions about the case in the Storting.
– Major measures were put in place to ensure that he would not travel anywhere. It goes against all logic to then use that as an argument against helping him, the sister believes.
REBELS: Yemen’s capital Sanaa is under the control of the Houthi movement. Here from the pro-Palestinian demonstration earlier in February. Photo: Reuters / NTB Show more
The UN application is being processed
However, there is one bright spot for the Dale family. As a result of being charged with terrorism and publicly wanted via Interpol in 2014, Anders Østensvig Dale has been blacklisted by the UN.
Earlier this week, the sister received confirmation that the UN Ombudsman will process an application for him to be removed from the blacklist – something she has worked for for a long time.
– This listing prevents the family from being able to help Anders with basic needs such as food and medical help, says lawyer Patrick Lundevall-Unger, who is assisting Dale from Norway.
Linked to terrorist cases
After it became known that Anders Østensvig Dale had been charged and wanted, he has been referred to on several occasions as one of the biggest terrorist threats to the West.
When the case against Dale became known, Western intelligence sources linked him to AQAP’s notorious bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri, terrorist plots against the London Olympics in 2012 and the brothers Said and Chérif Kouachi, who committed the terrorist attack against the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015.
– Anders has repeatedly told me that the accusations against him are false, that he is not a terrorist and that he has the right to explain himself, says Cathrine Østensvig Dale.
Anders Dale (35) charged with terrorism, wanted internationally
– It’s absurd
Her brother converted to Islam in 2008 and visited Yemen several times in the years that followed, before finally leaving Norway in 2011 – allegedly to join al-Qaeda.
The sister believes that the Norwegian authorities should be interested in getting him back to Norway to arrest him, if they believe that he is a dangerous terrorist who poses a threat.
– It cannot be intended that they should be able to accuse him of terrorism, and then do nothing more about the case – with all the consequences that entails for him, says Dale.
– It is absurd, she adds.
ASSISTANCE: Lawyer Patrick Lundevall-Unger. Photo: Magnus Paus / Dagbladet Show more
This corresponds to OUT
PST has not wanted to comment on the case against Dale, apart from pointing out that the terrorist charge against him is still pending.
Dagbladet has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a number of questions about how they relate to the fact that Dale is now accused of murder, that he wants assistance and wants to return to Norway.
Spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Siri R. Svendsen, says that all Norwegian citizens can request consular assistance from the foreign service.
– Consular assistance is provided on an individual basis and after individual assessments in each individual case. The individual Norwegian citizen can neither demand that, nor in what way, the foreign service should offer consular assistance in a specific individual case. The Foreign Service does not take a position on any questions of guilt, she says.
Svendsen emphasizes that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very understanding that this situation is difficult, both for Anders Østensvig Dale and his family.
– We are in contact with his family and lawyer, she says.
2024-02-17 17:07:22
#Accused #murder
