Kristian Valen in court: I was named Våpen-Valen

Comedian Kristian Valen pleaded not guilty to the charges he is charged with when his trial began in Oslo District Court on Monday.

The 48-year-old is accused of violating the penal code and of grossly violating the Weapons Act prohibition on owning or possessing a weapon without a permit. It was in February 2020 that police found a number of weapons and weapon parts during a search of Valen’s home on Aker Brygge in Oslo.

The comedian, who admits to having a strained relationship with parts of the police force, refused to comment during the investigation into the case. In court Monday, however, he gave a full account of how over the years he has acquired sealed weapons and replica weapons that have been used in his comedy and musical productions.

– I see myself as a comedian, I don’t recognize myself in this. When the prosecutor reads the indictment, this sounds serious, but I think the whole thing looks preposterous, Valen told District Court Judge Yngvild Thue.

Disagreement

– What is not revealed is that the prosecutor and I do not agree on the course of events for what happened almost three years ago, continued the 48-year-old.

While the prosecutor in his opening statement had called Valen a suicide when the police entered his apartment, the comedian himself strongly rejected it. He explained that, instead, he walked off the railing outside the apartment because he wanted to call neighbors as witnesses to police behavior in his home.

Valen said his relationship with police had been strained. For many years she had about 25 real, working guns from the time she was shooting as a hobby, but after firing one shot in his apartment in 2007, she gave up her license.

– Don’t shoot game

However, he did not get rid of the sealed weapons and weapon replicas that he used in his productions.

Valen recounted how life had taken a different turn after he fired the shot inside the apartment 15 years ago. As a sober humorist, he experienced that one feather became five chickens and nearly shot game in his apartment.

– Then I went from being a comedian to being a person who shot wildly around me all over the apartment with weapons I wasn’t allowed to have. Where the press got it from, I don’t know, but then I became Weapons Valen. It abounded on the Internet and everywhere, Valen said

When District Court Judge Yngvild Thue sat down in court in the Oslo courthouse on Monday morning, the comedian stood up as police lawyer Andreas Meeg-Bentzen read out the full indictment. Point by point, Valen answered no to the prosecution’s list of alleged crimes.

While Valen believes the weapons found in his possession by police are sealed and unusable, the prosecution believes they were not rendered so-called permanently unusable.

– Permanently unusable

– For a weapon to not be a firearm, it must be rendered permanently inoperable, and that’s part of the disagreement in this case. The prosecution believes many of the weapons and parts were not rendered permanently inoperable, the police lawyer said.

– The question is whether the defendant was guilty intentionally or by gross negligence after the charge, the prosecutor continued.

The police believe the issues for the court to decide are whether the weapons can easily be made functional and therefore potentially lethal.

Attorney Bernt Heiberg, who is Valen’s defender, said in court that these are sealed firearms that police believe are sealed incorrectly.

Five days have been set aside for the case in the Oslo District Court.