Related Articles
A guy who was wrongfully imprisoned for 21 years for the rape and murder of two girls, ages eight and ten, was today found not guilty.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
According to Mail Online, the Norwegian prosecutor’s office withdrew the charges against Viggo Kristiansen, 43, following a review of the available evidence.
The media has called his erroneous conviction for the rape and deaths of Stine Sofie Sortronen, 8, and Lena Slogedal Paulsen, 10, one of the darkest injustices in nation’s history.
The maximum penalty at the time, 21 years in jail with the possibility of an extension, was handed down to Kristiansen by two courts in 2001 and 2002.
The two girls were discovered dead in May 2000 after swimming in a lake in a forested location in the south of the nation.
Co-defendant Jan Helge Anderson’s testimony was disputed after the case was reviewed last year. He had claimed that his friend Kristiansen was the murder’s primary perpetrator.
The study observed that Kristiansen’s phone was far from the claimed murder scene at the time it occurred and that DNA evidence further disproved the hypothesis that other perpetrators were involved.
Attorney General Jon Sigurd Maurud told reporters that the case had profoundly tragic repercussions, particularly for Kristiansen and his family because he had spent more than 20 years in prison and had been deprived of a significant portion of his life.
Therefore, he continued, “I want to offer my deepest apologies for the injustice that has been perpetrated on behalf of the prosecution.”
The national police and the police district that carried out the investigation have also expressed regret.
According to his attorney, Kristiansen was freed from prison last year and may be entitled to more than 30 million Norwegian Kroner ($2.8 million) in state compensation.
Even though the prosecution has dropped the accusation, his acquittal will just need to be processed by a court as a formality.
At a press conference scheduled to address the announcement, Justice Emilie Enger Mehl stated: “If the court of appeal announces an acquittal, this will be one of the largest judicial scandals in Norwegian history.”
She also made a conditional apology and announced the launch of an impartial investigation to clarify the circumstances around the conviction.
The prosecution noted that Andersen, Kristiansen’s co-defendant, who was given a reduced term of 19 years in prison for helping the police, will now be the subject of additional investigation.
