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CRIME

Norwegian woman missing in Sweden ‘may have been kidnapped’

Volunteers in Swedish city Landskrona on Sunday took part in a search for a Norwegian woman police say may have been kidnapped.

Published: 30 December 2019 11:01 CET
Norwegian woman missing in Sweden 'may have been kidnapped'
A file photo showing Swedish city Landskrona. Photo: markovskiy/Depositphotos

The 43-year-old Norwegian woman was last seen on Christmas Eve and a police search using divers has meanwhile been halted.

Divers had searched the town’s harbour, which is located close to the area where the woman was last seen. Landskrona is located in southern Sweden between Helsingborg and Malmö.

Police in Sweden are investigating the Norwegian woman’s disappearance as a kidnapping, media in both countries report.

She was last seen accompanied by a man between 10pm on Christmas Eve and 2am on Christmas Day.

“The more time that passes, the stranger it gets. We need new leads and information in order to move forwards,” Richard Lundqvist, press spokesperson with the Swedish police in Region South, told NRK.

“The woman was seen with a man. We are not going to say anything further about who the man is. But that was the last sign of life, and it happened during the course of these four hours [10pm-2am, ed.] on the night before Christmas Day,” Lundqvist added.

“We are interested in all observations, let the police determine what is interesting. As long as we have nothing to investigate, we can’t move forward. We have a mobile telephone belonging to the woman which is being investigated,” he continued.

Swedish police are using a “working hypothesis” that the woman was kidnapped and that they are therefore searching for a living person, NRK writes.

“There has not been anything specific or any evidence (that she is the victim of a crime), this is a working hypothesis. But as time passes without anyone seeing or hearing from her, suspicion increases that something criminal may have happened,” Lundqvist told NRK.

Police added that they have not ruled out that the woman may have disappeared intentionally.

Charity Fik, founded to assist in crisis situations, organized a search which took place on Sunday.

The search took place in the harbour area and nearby coast and forest, an organizer said.

“The woman has not been found there in spite of a comprehensive search, but we can’t rule out that she might be there,” said Peder Schillerström Bruun, a senior volunteer with Fik, told TT.

Areas visible from the air were meanwhile searched using drones provided by another organization, Svenska räddningsdrönare.

But the search did not provide any new leads for the police investigation, NRK reports.

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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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