Hijacker sues Norway for the right to stay

Aeroflot aircraftt. Photo: Aeroflot.

Hijacker sues Norway for the right to stay on humanitarian grounds

A 46-years-old hijacker from Iran will be tried in Oslo District Court this week. This to establish whether he is entitled to a residence permit on humanitarian grounds in Norway.


Two days are set aside for the case that started on Monday.

The Iranian-born man has had a temporary residence permit in Norway since 2002 because he risks the death penalty on returning to Iran. He is not granted a humanitarian stay since he came to Norway after hijacking an aircraft in 1993.

He currently has a temporary residence permit which has been renewed for seven months at a time in recent years.

Hijacked aircraft en route from Azerbaijan

The man came to Norway in 1993 as a 20-years-old together with his eight-year-old brother and another man in a hijacked Aeroflot aircraft.

The three hijacked a plane en route from Baku in Azerbaijan to Perm in Russia. The hijackers forced it to fly to Gardermoen where they surrendered to the Norwegian police. Almost eighteen years later they were handed over to Russia where they were sentenced to between four and five years in prison.

After being handed over and serving the prison sentences, the brothers returned to Norway via Denmark, where their asylum applications were refused.

In the summer of 2002, they received a one-year residence permit in Norway on humanitarian grounds, because no other country would accept them, and because they risked the death penalty in their home country.

After this, the brother of the plaintiff has been granted a family immigration permit with his Norwegian spouse (in 2010) and is currently a Norwegian citizen. The Lawyer of the 46-years-old, Trond Olsen Næss, writes in his final submission that there is unjustified differential treatment between the two brothers, among other things.

In addition, it is stated that the 46-year-old is cut off from contact with his daughter in Lithuania, since the residence permit he has today does not entitle him to a immigration passport.

Drug verdict

He also refers to the Immigration Appeals Committee’s decisions as grossly unreasonable. The counterparty – led by Attorney Jane Elisabeth Christensen – refutes this in her closing statement.

She also points out that the plaintiff still has a temporary residence permit under the Immigration Act and that he is also not prevented by the law from getting the necessary health care and treatment in Norway.

In the final submissions, it is not mentioned that the man was sentenced to six years in prison in Follo District Court for drug smuggling in 2008. He was living in Oslo together with his cohabitant when he was arrested in 2006. The police connected him and five Eastern Europeans to 4.9 kilograms of methamphetamine which was seized in a car at Ås.


© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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