OSLO DISTRICT COURT (VG) The trial against Kristian Valen is over. The prosecution is asking for one year in prison for Valen – he says he doesn’t understand “how those people on the other side can sleep at night”.
– I feel very lucky to have had the financial backbone to actually get help to go through this, because there are a lot of people out there who don’t. And if I hadn’t had that, I don’t know if I would have managed this here, then I think I would have failed, says Valen to VG after the fourth and last day of the trial against him.
He has been charged with a serious breach of the Arms Act, illegal possession of weapons and a drug offense – and denies criminal guilt.
Valen’s defender Bernt Heiberg asks that Valen be acquitted on all counts, and says Valen has acted in good faith and cannot be blamed for the conditions for which he is charged.
The public prosecutor’s office asking for one year in prison for the comedian.
– The way you are treated here – I have completely lost all faith in what is going on… I don’t understand how those people on the other side can sleep at night once, and not least what has been in the press, says Valen .
In 2020, the police found five firearms and six weapon parts at Valen’s address which they believe were not deactivated correctly according to the regulations. In total, the police demand the confiscation of over 40 weapons and weapon-like objects.
Read more about the trial here.
Valen has stated in his explanation that it is the police and reputable arms dealers who have carried out the sealing of the weapons he has used as props through his production company.
– The fact that it turns out that the gunsmiths did not destroy the weapons according to Kripo’s standard cannot be blamed on Valen, said defender Bernt Heiberg in his proceedings.
Valen has been critical of both the police’s and the press’s handling of the case.
– That the journalists are able to sleep with what they have written, I don’t understand. There is zero human insight into what the journalists write, and it is frightening, incredibly frightening.
He says he himself has chosen to be in the industry, but that if he had known how it would turn out, he doesn’t know.
– But you won’t get rid of me, you won’t. But now we’ll see, now we’ll have to wait and see what the court says, that’s the most important thing, but I’m glad it’s over now anyway, so we’ll see, then we hope everything will come to an end.
