On Tuesday, the appeal case starts after a policeman was acquitted last summer after he was accused of violence and excessive use of force in the center of Kongsberg.
Video surveillance images showed that he repeatedly hit Kevin Simensen in the head under a basket roof at a gas station in Kongsberg.
The policeman was acquitted on all counts in the district court, but the case was further appealed.
A burden
The defendant’s lawyers, John Christian Elden and Heidi Reisvang, believe the case was thoroughly dealt with in the district court last year.
Lawyers John Christian Elden and Heidi Reisvang are the defenders of the accused police officer.
Photo: Tordis Gauteplass / NRK
– We cannot see that significant new evidence has emerged from the prosecution after the acquittals, say the defenders.
– What will be important for you to achieve?
– The topics of evidence will be the same as in the previous court round. However, the defense believes that new information has come to light about Simensen, which is central to all the time they substantiate that the defendant’s understanding of the situation was correct, and that there was reason to react in the current situation. We will return to this in more detail in court.
Reisvang says it is a burden on the defendant that the case will now go to court again.
Excited about the outcome
– This case is special, and has created a great debate both in police circles and society in general, says NRK’s crime commentator Olav Rønneberg.
It is not automatic that an appeal from the district court is accepted by the court of appeal, and the eye of the needle has become narrower in recent years. Rønneberg, on the other hand, is not surprised that this case was taken up by Borgarting.
Olav Rønneberg, NRK’s crime commentator, believes the case raises many fundamental questions about the police’s use of force.
Photo: Caroline Utti / NRK
– I would say that the outcome is quite open, but I would also not rule out that it ends up in the Supreme Court. There are, after all, some questions of principle that are raised about the police’s use of force, he says.
The case is heard in the Borgarting Court of Appeal in Oslo all this week.
The fear of the weapon
In the district court, the policeman explained that he found Simensen to be aggressive, and that he had no other choice but to hit.
He said the police in autumn 2022 were generally armed, and that they had previously experienced perpetrators reaching for police weapons.
– It was too violent for me to handle it. I took it to mean that we were losing control, and I started hitting. I experienced that he wanted to harm us, said the police officer.
Prosecutor Marit Oliver Storeng asked the police officer if he stopped at any point to see if his blows had any effect.
– No. But I would have noticed it if the body had relaxed. I didn’t notice anything, he resisted all the time.
Simensen, for his part, said that he did not know it was a police officer who grabbed him, and that he therefore grabbed the amen.
– I never understood that it was an arrest. I only perceived that I was thrown to the ground. I was just trying to get away from the violence, Simensen said.
