The police will question a convicted man

Now they want to question him. The information is confirmed by the man’s lawyer, Victoria Holmen.

– The police made contact before Easter. He declined to be questioned. That is also my advice to him. We were informed that he had broken into a base station, but not when and which one, says Holmen to VG.

According to VG’s information, the telephone of the convicted man, whom the police now want to question, was registered at a base station on the actual day of his disappearance, 31 October 2018.

This base station is close to the home of the Hagen couple.

– Makes me wonder

Among other things, the police have interrogated a man in the circle around Tom Hagen, and asked him a number of questions related to his knowledge of the convicted man.

A week after his disappearance, the police took out telephone data on him over four calendar months from the end of 2018 to the beginning of 2019.

According to what VG is informed, the police made use of the emergency right, when they started tracking the man’s phone activity. The police have both extracted data showing where he has been and with whom he has communicated.

Lawyer Holmen is puzzled by the police’s behavior.

– If it is true that the police have used coercive measures against my client as an ongoing collection of telephone data in this case, he must be given rights as the accused in a possible interrogation, says Victoria Holmen to VG.

She says the police have not mentioned any of this to her.

On Thursday afternoon, prosecutor Vibeke Schøyen in the East police district stated that they have sent a recommendation in the Lørenskog case to the Oslo state prosecutor’s office for a prosecution decision.

In the course of the next few weeks, the higher prosecution authority will decide whether the case should be prosecuted or dropped. NRK wrote yesterday that the police will drop the case against Tom Hagen.

Also read: NRK: The police will drop the case against Tom Hagen

Neither the East Police District nor the Oslo State Attorney’s Office wish to comment on the contents of the proposal.

Convicted persons are linked to the crime scene

The police will not go into detail as to why they now want to question the man so many years later.

– Through the investigation, the police have uncovered former convicts who can be linked to the crime scene or the surrounding area at interesting times. Several of those who fall into this category, we have chosen to call in for witness interviews, says prosecutor Guro Holm Hansen to VG.

She will not answer VG’s questions about their use of emergency law to track down the convicted man they now want to bring in for questioning.

Using the right of emergency in connection with the acquisition of telecommunications data means that the police, in situations where there is an immediate and serious danger to life, health or substantial damage to property, can obtain telecommunications data without the usual prior approval from a court.

This may include situations such as kidnapping, serious threats, ongoing serious criminal acts or other emergencies where time is of the essence to prevent harm or harmful outcomes.

– Is your client informed afterwards that he has been tracked by the police?

– This information is up to now unknown to both me and my client, says the man’s lawyer, Victoria Holmen.

– The police have no further comment, but can state on a general basis that it is not automatic that a person becomes a suspect even if the police collects telephone data on that person. It is also settled against witnesses, says Holm Hansen.

Emergency right

The experienced lawyer John Christian Elden believes that the police’s behavior in this case is not in accordance with the law.

– If they have not continuously informed him that they have seized telecommunications data based on the right of emergency, they must have gone to court to obtain a ruling on failure to notify. Then he is to be considered the accused in the case, says Elden.

He says there is also no reason for the police to use emergency powers over several months.

– Which here assumes that the police do not have time to go to court. When it is done against a third party based on suspicious behaviour, he will be considered a suspect in the case with the rights that entails.

Police attorney Guro Holm Hansen says that the police, at this time, had reason to believe that Anne Elisabeth Hagen was alive and did everything they could to find her, but that they will not comment on Elden’s statements beyond this.

– In such a large and complex criminal case, it will be natural that the police’s investigation is reviewed and where our investigative steps and basis for these will be thoroughly explained, says the police attorney.

Secret investigation

The period from November 2018 to February 2019 of the investigation was partially hidden from the public, until the police released information about Anne-Elisabeth Hagen’s disappearance on the morning of 9 January 2019.

In the first months of 2019, the police worked on the theory that Anne-Elisabeth Hagen had been kidnapped, as was evident from the kidnapping letter that was left in the home in Sloraveien.

According to what VG is informed, the police worked with several specific names, who could either have had the capacity to be behind the kidnapping, or who for various reasons were connected to Sloraveien during the central time period for the disappearance.

For over five years, the police have investigated the case with full force, without getting any closer to what happened to Anne-Elisabeth Hagen.

As of April 2024, the police have not given up.

– We still have more work to do and the investigation is still a priority, says Holm Hansen.

Does not rule out new arrests

The head of public prosecutions says an investigation plan will be drawn up for the autumn of 2024.

– The main hypothesis that Anne Elisabeth is the victim of a murder still stands, but several theories are still being worked on in this case, says Holm Hansen.

The situation surrounding the three accused in the case has not changed, and the number of accused has not changed.

– You have reported several times that “the police always know more and get a lot of answers”. Can this be elaborated in any way?

– It is not natural at this time to say anything more about this. There is a great deal of information in the case from before, and this combined with new information and the fact that things can be seen in a different context means that you still get new answers of interest.

– How do the police see the possibility of solving this case?

– We work every day to find out what has happened to Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, and we still see the possibility of this.

– How relevant are new arrests?

– The investigation is still ongoing, and we cannot rule out that it may become relevant.