One of the saddest stories from Norway this century has been “the Baneheia murders”. It is disgusting and while I have forced myself to listen to the verdict today I won't write much about it. More details than any sane person would want to know are already out on the internet.
For me the interesting part is that the verdict is extremely clear when it points out that Jan Helge Andersen alone was responsible for everything.
This is interesting because while Viggo Kristiansen has now been a free man for around two years already, the previous court decision – as far as I could understand it at least – didn't go far enough in clearing his name.
Ironically, Jan Helge Andersen, by desperately trying to pull Viggo back into the fray has forced the court to take a position on all his claims.
This has resulted in rather long verdict that destroys these claims – hopefully once and for all.
Please note that nobody is claiming Viggo Kristiansen is some kind of hero: he has a criminal past.
But he has been imprisoned for around two decades for something he did not do.
The verdict is also clear that the police work was shoddy, but according to people who have followed the case closer than me concludes it wasn't intentionally but rather they fell into a confirmation bias trap.
Still it is a terrible reminder why people should be considered innocent until proven guilty and why police should look for exonerating evidence as much as they look for incriminating evidence.
He has been sentenced to 21 years which is the longest sentence you can get in Norway. (although you can get a harsher 21 year sentence, “forvaring”.)
I didn't want to say much about this case until now but as he is now considered guilty I guess I can say that I always felt it was either 20-21 years or him walking out as a free man. In my opinion there wasn't room for anything in between.
There's one thing I still wonder about: now that it seems he has nothing to lose, will he somehow try to get back at his former employer?
I might get back to this later but lunch break is over now.
So, this weekend there was a shooting in a mosque in Oslo, close to where I work. The bastard was taken down by to elderly men shortly after shooting his way into the building and before he managed to kill anyone there. Sadly he had killed his sister before leaving his home.
I'm happy to see this madman caught alive and happy to be certain he will be stashed away for a looong time. Norway technically doesn't have lifetime, but certain sentences (“forvaring”) means a person will have to be both serve their time in in jail first and then – after serving their time – their sentence can still be extended again and again until we have reason to believe they have learned their lesson.
To all minorities in Norway, and Muslims in particular this time: I'm sorry we aren't better at protecting you and I hope we will get better. Also for what it is worth: every person I know – including those who are most openly critical to immigration – says they are disgusted by this.