Politician charged with sexual offenses

North Troms District Court Tromsø sexual offensesNorth Troms District Court in Tromsø. Photo: Jan-Morten Bjørnbakk / Scanpix

Prominent politician from Troms in custody charged with sexual offenses

A prominent politician from Troms has been detained for a week, charged with sexual offenses. He claims to not fathom why he is charged, according to the newspaper Nordlys.

 

The indicted man is subject to a letter and visitor ban after he was placed in custody by the North Troms district court, according to Nordlys, who first mentioned the case.

He refutes the charges, according to his defender, Ulf Hansen.

– We confirm that we investigate a case according to the pertinent laws and that a man is charged. Due to further investigation into the case, we can not elaborate at present, says chief of police in Tromsø, Anita Hermandsen.

Indicted according to both the previous and current penal codes

The man is charged according to both the revised and old penal cold, which means that the indictment is pertinent to before and after 2015, inclusive.

The police are frugal in their comments, but state that they have initiated investigation under the following sections of the Criminal Code:

Old Penal Code, paragraph 224, first paragraph, letter A: “Anyone who by violence, threats, abuse of a vulnerable situation or through other improper conduct exploits a person for prostitution or other sexual purposes, or who indices a person to be used for such purpose, is punishable for trafficking with a maximum prison term of up to 5 years “.

The indictment is also covered by the revised Penal Code paragraph 295, letter A. 1)

No alerts concerning the man

A long-standing party membery, and the leader of the local party organization which the man belongs to, says that the party has not received any warnings or complaints regarding the man.

– There is currently no indication that members of our youth organization, or anybody else in the party for that matter, are involved in the case, the leader says to Dagbladet.

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today

 

1) Written in language so stilted that I won’t even attempt to translate into readable Norwegian, let alone English.