Guardsmen who were dismissed for drug use at a private party are suing the Ministry of Defence

The case made headlines in the summer of 2022:

30 guardsmen were thrown out of the Armed Forces for having used illegal drugs in their spare time while on leave for the summer holidays.

Several of them told NRK that they felt pressured to confess, before they were stripped of their security clearance and dismissed. The lawsuit against the state was first notified in May 2023.

On Monday evening, Elden lawyer Inger Zadig submitted the summons to the Oslo district court on behalf of the six men.

They are suing the state at the Ministry of Defense for violations of human rights in their handling of the case. The guards are also adamant that the decision on graduation is invalid.

– For my clients, this is about basic human rights, and about young people who will serve after them not being exposed to the same treatment. Beyond that, I do not want to advance the case in the media, says Zadig to Dagbladet.

– The Ministry of Defense has not yet been served with the lawsuit by the Oslo district court and therefore does not know what allegations have been made in the case. The ministry will, as usual, go through the subpoena thoroughly together with the Government Attorney as soon as it is served by the district court, says special adviser in the communications unit in the Ministry of Defence, Birgitte Frisch, on Wednesday morning.

Guard commander Trond Robert Forbregd told NRK in August 2022 that he was sorry if the soldiers felt that communication had been unclear.

– This is undoubtedly a demanding situation to be in, both for them and those around them, said the head of the guard to NRK.

“Very serious consequences”

In the summons, the lawyer points to:

• That the rust testing, including the hair sampling of the guards, was a disproportionate use of coercive measures and thus in violation of human rights. Both the testing, and the decision to test, were also contrary to internal guidelines. The samples were otherwise thrown away and never analysed.
• That the Armed Forces threatened with “very serious consequences” (such as a police report) for those who did not admit to drug use, but were later caught for it. This pressure violated the right to remain silent, Zadig believes.
• That it is not true, as the Defense has said, that the rust testing was done by a random sample. On the contrary, it was “according to the company commander’s own statement, aimed specifically at a limited number of soldiers who were suspected of illegal drug use”, writes the lawyer.
• That there has not been a concrete assessment of the security risk that the use of illegal drugs can entail. Nor individual assessments of each individual soldier – as required by the Defense Act.

The armed forces are free to emphasize a political position of zero tolerance for illegal drugs, writes Zadig.

“However, the armed forces cannot enforce such a political position towards the individual, based on unspecified fitness assessments,” she continues.

“Abuse of authority”

She further points out that there is no indication that the soldiers’ alleged drug use in their spare time affected their fitness for duty.

The lawyer describes soldiers who always showed up drug-free and in good shape for duty, and carried out their duties.

“The only point of view the decision then seems to be based on is that the violation of norms that such drug use constitutes can in itself be considered a weakness in their fitness. In the plaintiff’s view, this would be unfair and constitute an abuse of authority,” Zadig writes further.

She believes that the State must be judged by the Ministry of Defense for human rights violations and that the decision on dismissal must be overturned.

Internal drug hearing in the Armed Forces

Major and spokesperson Andreas Lander recently confirmed to Dagbladet that there is ongoing drug work within the Norwegian Armed Forces.

More concretely, a working group has been set up to work on how the Armed Forces should deal with drugs, illegal drugs and security.

– The reason why the group was established was that they should take a closer look at how the Armed Forces follow societal developments in drugs and drugs against the need to ensure safety and security, says Lander.

They were then asked whether the work was connected to the gardis case, but did not answer it.

On Tuesday, DN wrote that defense personnel who have been reported for drug use, in violation of internal rules, can contact the police for a new assessment of their cases.

Drug group closed down

The armed forces have been in the media’s spotlight several times in recent years for their handling of cases related to illegal drugs:

• In March 2023, Dagens Næringsliv revealed how the Norwegian Armed Forces’ narcotics group has been illegally checking future soldiers in the police registers for a number of years. The Norwegian Defense Force regretted the practice, which was discontinued in 2020.
• Shortly after the revelation, DN wrote that the Norwegian Armed Forces’ narcotics group is being closed down. It is the military police who are now working with drugs in the Armed Forces.
• In October 2022, Dagbladet revealed that the Norwegian Armed Forces wanted to buy courses from the Norsk Narkotikapolitiforening (I dag Norsk Narkotikaforebyggende Forening) – the drug policy interest organization with which the police received harsh criticism for mixing roles. They dropped the course after the criticism.
• In the summer of 2022, 30 guardsmen were dismissed from the Garden due to drug use at a party in their spare time. In NRK, several of them came out strongly against the Norwegian Armed Forces’ handling of the case, and said, among other things, that they felt tricked into confessing.