The case in summary:
Expand/minimize fact box
- FpU leader Simen Velle was convicted in 2019 of possession of 100 grams of cannabis.
- The police had written the wrong date of the offense in the charge, which led to Velle being treated as a minor in court.
- Velle was sentenced to 30 days in prison.
- Velle himself went on Facebook and informed about the mistake, and emphasized that he was over 18 at the time of the crime.
- The police initially believed that the offense qualified for 45 days of unconditional imprisonment.
- The error will not have any consequences, as the judgment is legally binding.
The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by NRK’s journalists before publication.
Earlier this week, the FpU leader told VG that in 2019 he was convicted of possession of 100 grams of cannabis.
– I have never in my life regretted anything as much as what I am doing around this, said Velle.
In the VG case it is stated that “Velle believes it was right that he was sentenced, and will take responsibility for his own actions. At the same time, he recalls that he was under 18 years old.”
On Friday, Velle shares on Facebook that this was wrong. He was over 18 at the time of the crime.
Screenshot from Simen Velle’s Facebook.
Facsimile: Simen Velle / Facebook
The police apologize
The error occurred because the report was wrongly dated manually by the police.
“The error pursued the case in the various phases, and meant that Velle was sentenced on the basis that he was under 18, whereas in 2019 he had turned 18”.
Police inspector in the Oslo police district Kjersti Lauvsnes informs this in a press release.
“This is regrettable on the part of the police. The verdict is legally binding, and the police will do nothing more in the case,” Lauvsnes writes further.
In 2019, the police seized approx. 100 grams of cannabis belonging to Simen Velle and two friends.
Photo: The police
Judgment on incorrect premises
Because Velle confessed to the offence, the case went as a confession. There he was sentenced to 30 days in prison.
In the judgment, the court writes that the penalty for the possession of 100 grams of marijuana is basically unconditional imprisonment.
But because the time of the storage, according to the police charge, was 2018, the court took into account that Velle was a minor at the time of the crime.
Velle’s young age and the time that had passed since the offence, together with the confession and the positive development in his life situation, meant that the court decided that the sentence should be made conditional.
However, two of the mitigating considerations the court took were incorrect. Velle was arrested for possession of cannabis in 2019, not 2018.
At this time he was over 18 years of age. Neither had long passed since the offence, as the court assumed.
Told it myself
On Friday morning, the FpU leader took to Facebook with the following message:
“In the court documents it says that my friends and I were taken in 2018, but after going through the case papers for the first time I have seen a different date, exactly one year later in 2019. The important thing about that is that I was not 17 years old and a few weeks, but 18 years and a few weeks and thus just came of age.”
Velle writes that he tries to be as open as possible. He also writes that at the time he was taken, he was very depressed.
“I don’t have very many memories from that time. As I have said before, I was not healthy at all, and struggled with bigger things than remembering dates,” writes Velle in the post.
The police suggested prison
According to what NRK learns, the police initially proposed 45 days of unconditional imprisonment for the three accused in their proposal for a confession sentence.
The confession was taken into account in this proposal.
But due to wrongly dated documents, the public prosecutor sent the case back to the police because they mistakenly believed that the fact that the defendants were minors had not been taken into account.
The Oslo police district then changed the proposed sentence to suspended imprisonment for 36 days.
In border countries
Law professor at the Norwegian Police Academy Morten Holmboe writes to NRK that it is an important point when the sentence is meted out if the defendant was over or under 18 at the time of the act.
“It is a mistake that may have had an impact on sentencing,” he writes.
At the same time, Holmboe points out that there are cases where community punishment has been given because of the convict’s personal circumstances.
Criminal lawyer and partner in Elden Advokatfirma Ellen Tvedten Jorem says that possession of 100 grams of cannabis is on the borderline between conditional and unconditional imprisonment.
“Without further knowledge of this particular case, it is, in my view, quite possible that he would have received a suspended prison sentence anyway, regardless of the police’s incorrect dating in the charge,” she writes to NRK.
Law professor at the Police Academy Morten Holmboe says Velle would not necessarily have received a prison sentence if the court knew he was of legal age.
Photo: Rahand Bazaz/NRK
The professor emphasizes that the judgment is in any case legally binding and that there is no basis for reopening to the detriment of the convicted.
FRP leader Sylvi Listhaug has previously spoken out about the verdict. She is not available for comment on Friday, NRK is informed.
Published 03/05/2024, at 11.08 Updated 04.05.2024, at 18.52