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Oslo brothers slit man’s throat with pizza cutter

Two Oslo brothers have been charged with murdering a 22-year-old Somali man by slitting his throat with a pizza cutter, simply because he owed them money.

Published: 20 October 2015 22:11 CEST

Oslo brothers slit man's throat with pizza cutter

The police found the body at Holmlia in Oslo in February. Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB scanpix

The brothers, aged 21 and 23, are charged with killing the man in their home in Holmlia in Oslo and then taking his body out to a wooded area and laying it in a ditch.

In the indictment, the prosecution reported that the two brothers repeatedly struck the man across the face before cutting his throat with a pizza cutter, or a knife, or possibly both.

The two men are pleading guilty to the murder, which they claim took place in February when they were in a state of intoxication.

They did nothing to hide the body once they had placed it in the ditch, and phoned the police themselves to report the murder and direct officers to the body.

“He profusely regrets what happened and is looking forward to receiving his punishment after the case comes to court,” the elder brother’s lawyer, Ole Petter Drevland, said.

Odd Ivar Grøn, from the law firm Lippestad, is representing relatives of the victim.

“It has been a tough time for the family and it has been difficult for both his parents and his younger siblings,” Grøn told Norway's Dagbladet.

Norwegian police charge Olympic champion's father for domestic violence

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, who are also athletes, shocked Norway last October when they accused their father of being violent.

“We grew up with a very aggressive and authoritarian father, who used physical violence and threats as part of his upbringing,” the brothers wrote in an op-ed for newspaper VG. “We still feel a sense of discomfort and fear that we have felt since childhood,” they added.

Police opened a probe into the abuse claims and on Monday said prosecutors had decided to charge Gjert Ingebrigtsen, 58, with domestic violence against one of his children.

According to a source close to the case, the acts in question do not concern the trio of known athletes but another, younger child.

Over a period of four years, from 2018 to 2022, Gjert Ingebrigtsen allegedly manhandled, insulted, threatened and hit the child in the face with his hand or with a towel.

Responding to questions from AFP, Therese Braut Vage, who led the investigation, would not confirm this account.

Police said they had closed investigations into other events concerning the six other children in the home either due to a lack of evidence or, in one case, because the statute of limitations having expired.

Gjert, who coached Jakob until after the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where Jakob won the gold — has always denied the accusations against him.

“As far as the dismissed cases, we agree that there is no evidence to prove that Ingebrigtsen committed any wrongdoing,” his lawyer John Christian Elden told AFP on Monday.

“For the rest, Ingebrigtsen disputes the description of the facts on which the indictment is based — and he therefore does not admit his guilt,” he continued in an email.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the most successful of the three brothers, twice winning gold in the world championships 5000m in 2022 and 2023, as well as the Olympic 1500m gold.

The 23-year-old is also preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Henrik, 33, and Filip, 31, were European champions in the 1500m in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

After breaking with his sons, Gjert Ingebrigtsen shocked Norwegian athletics by becoming the trainer of another runner, Narve Gilje Nordas.

The Norwegian Olympic Committee has said that Gjert will not be granted accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, as was the case at last year’s World Athletics Championships.

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