The defense is turning around after the man was first allowed to keep his job.
Updated less than 10 minutes ago
The Swedish Armed Forces decided to fire a sergeant who repeatedly secretly filmed a female soldier in the shower.
The man was sentenced conditionalConditional imprisonment means you don’t have to serve your sentence, unless you re-commit something criminal during a probationary period, which is often two years. imprisonment and fines for it. But he was allowed to keep both his degree and his job in the military.
After VG wrote on the matter in May there were more reactions.
Defense management then said they would review the matter.
A dismissal committee has now decided on this and concluded that he should not be allowed to keep his job.
He can complain
Attorney Gro Kværnå of the Norwegian Officers Association assisted the man in the dismissal board:
– Our member does not wish to comment further on the matter at this time, he writes in a text message.
The sergeant can appeal the decision to the Ministry of Defense. If he is refused there, he also has the option of filing a lawsuit through the courts.
Kværnå does not want to answer whether the man will complain or not.
VG has been in contact with the Norwegian Armed Forces press secretary, Lieutenant Colonel Per Espen Strande, to obtain comment from the defense leadership on the matter.
– I do not have the opportunity to call anyone in the defense leadership this weekend to comment on this matter, Strande told VG. In an email he adds the following:
“The Press Guard does not know the details of this case. I will have to contact you this week with an answer. In general, I do not have the opportunity to comment on personnel matters in the media.”
Happy with the result
Julie Sandanger (25) is the soldier who spotted the officer and reported him.
On the sergeant’s phone, investigators found 38 videos of his shower in the communal locker room of the military camp where they were both located.
Sandanger said the decision to register the case had a clear reason:
– I did this because I didn’t want him to continue in a position of staff responsibility, Sandanger told VG in May.
He also stated:
– They allow a convicted person to continue working in the Armed Forces. It is tragic.
Thanks from the Chief of Defense
Defense chief Eirik Kristoffersen thanked Sandanger for choosing to stand up.
– It is tough and helps to raise the debate on this and not least how unacceptable it is, Kristoffersen said in May.
Lawyer Anja Hellander assisted Sandanger. She says Sandanger is positive about the new outcome of the case.
– Then we’ll see what happens next if he complains. But it’s good that the military has taken this step, says Hellander.
Difficult case series for the Armed Forces
Numerous press reports on the military have been published this year:
In a series of articles, NRK described how notifications against Norwegian Armed Forces officers are handled. In one of the cases it emerges that a major tried to persuade subordinates to lie after driving off the street drunk.
Here, whistleblowers also react to the fact that management did not let the case have consequences for the major, who was convicted in court of drunk driving and trying to influence others to tell lies.
In another question it describes NRK how an officer sent sexual messages to female soldiers. Five women complained of sexual pressure from the officer and criticized the defense’s handling of the case. The man was later promoted to colonel.
VG written in May about how an officer fell asleep naked next to a table of brown dust and aluminum foil, after which a man accessed his phone, where he kept passwords and defense documents. The officer says he was drugged and pressured for money.
NRK also wrote about Line Svingen, the defense’s first female helicopter pilot, and the process where she was deposed, a trial that the Norwegian Defense Force later regretted.
