Was the policeman just doing his job and what was necessary to gain control, or was the use of force illegal? Now it is ready for a new round in court.
A video published by Dagbladet showed what happened in the relevant minutes outside the Esso Deli de Luca in Kongsberg when a policeman used violence in 2022. Photo: Dagbladet TV
Published: 30/03/2024 14:09
The short version
- A policeman has been charged with grievous bodily harm and grossly negligent breach of duty. He claims to have acted within the law to gain control.
The summary is made with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and quality assured by Aftenposten’s journalists.
Short version is for subscribers only
A police officer has been charged with grievous bodily harm and grossly negligent breach of duty. The reason is that at a petrol station in Kongsberg in the autumn of 2022 he committed violence against Kevin Simensen and Kristian Pablo Teigen.
The policeman has always denied criminal guilt. He believes he did what he had to in order to gain control, and that the exercise of power was an act of service within the rules of the Police Act. However, the prosecution believes that the use of violence was illegal.
The case has received a lot of attention because of a surveillance video showing the incident at the gas station.
Before the summer of last year, the policeman was acquitted by the district court on all counts. But the verdict was not unanimous, and the court also expressed doubts. Prosecutor Marit Oliver Storeng, head of prosecution at the Bureau of Police Affairs, submitted a full appeal a short time later.
Kevin Simensen is one of the two men who are offended in the case. Photo: Terje Bendiksby, NTB
To my vitner
On Tuesday, round two of the case starts in the Borgarting Court of Appeal. Two new witnesses are then called to the witness box:
- An owner of a nightclub in Kongsberg will explain his experience of the one victim, Simensen, earlier in the evening.
- A police chief from Oslo has been called in as an expert witness. He has experience with training in arrest techniques and will explain himself about training and practice related to the police’s use of force and means of force.
– In our view, the witnesses can improve the evidence picture on certain points, says Storeng to Aftenposten.
– Completely incomprehensible
In the district court, Storeng asked for 60 days in prison for the policeman accused of violence. She thought there could be no doubt that it was an illegal use of force.
She called the use of violence completely incomprehensible and believed that hitting is a means of force reserved for emergency situations. And this was not such a situation, according to the prosecutor.
On the other hand, she believes that the policeman himself created a situation that triggered the use of violence, and that it could have been resolved in another way.
The prosecutor in the case is Marit Oliver Storeng from the Bureau of Police Affairs Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB
The court did not agree with her. They believed “beyond any doubt” that the policeman’s use of blows with a clenched hand appeared justifiable, compared to the resistance described by the policeman.
The court held that the blows were within the law, especially because Simensen did not give up and that the policeman therefore considered it necessary to continue to strike in order to get Simensen to stop his resistance.
They also believed that there is no evidence to be able to conclude that it would have been possible for the police officer to use, for example, pepper spray instead of punches.
– I hoped it could be ended
John Christian Elden, the policeman’s defender, says they had hoped the case would stop in the district court.
– He had hoped the case could be closed after the last thorough legal review, but just has to note that the attorney general chose to appeal, says Elden.
The defender believes that no significant new evidence has come from the prosecution after the acquittals.
– So we look at the case in the same way now as in the district court, says Elden.
John Christian Elden, defending the defendant, believes the policeman was only doing his job. Photo: Terje Bendiksby, NTB
May end up in the Supreme Court
The case is in many ways a matter of principle where it is important to clarify. There is thus a great chance that the case will eventually end up in the Supreme Court.
Because it is about how much force and violence a police officer can use in his service, within legal limits.
Prosecutor Storeng believes it is too early to say whether the case will end up in the Supreme Court.
– Now we will first carry out the appeal hearing and see what the Court of Appeal comes up with, says Storeng.
Defender Elden is a little clearer.
– Once the case has been put forward as a matter of principle from the other side, the possibility of it ending up in the Supreme Court is certainly present, says Elden.
2024-03-30 13:09:47
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