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CRIME

Sigrid witness wants cash for police treatment

The 65-year-old man questioned by the Norwegian police over the murder of teen Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne wants compensation for having been placed under restrictions for several months. The prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday that it was set to charge a 38-year-old for her abduction and killing.

Published: 9 July 2013 14:16 CEST
Sigrid witness wants cash for police treatment
The funeral of Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne at Oppsal Church in Oslo. File photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen/Scanpix

"I can confirm that we have started the process to demand compensation for my client," lawyer Aase Karine Sigmond told the Aftenposten newspaper on Tuesday. "He has from the start been clear with not having anything to do with the incident, but that he had information that could help the investigation." 

The suspected abduction and later murder of Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne, 16, has kept Norway on edge. She disappeared from the Østensjø neighbourhood in Oslo on August 5th last year. Her body was found less than a month later on September 4th in a wooded area near the 65-year-old's workshop near Oppegård. 

The 65-year-old and another suspect in his thirties were arrested on suspicion of being tied to her death that year, with the older suspect released in November 2012.

The prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday that a 38-year-old man would be charged for kidnapping and manslaughter. 

"The chief prosecutor has decided that there is no ground for charging the 65-year-old. The charges have therefore been discarded due to lack of evidence," prosecutor's office spokeswoman Nina Prebe said at a press conference.

On Tuesday, the 65-year-old's lawyer underscored that he had lived with police restrictions for two and a half months, and had been questioned for some 100 hours in total. 

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SPORT

Norwegian police charge Olympic champion’s father for domestic violence

Norwegian police said Monday that Gjert Ingebrigtsen, father and former coach of 1,500m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, had been charged with domestic violence against a family member.

Published: 29 April 2024 16:41 CEST
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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