Noor acquitted of murder and rape after 21 years in prison China defends zero-Covid policy

In one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Norwegian history, a 43-year-old man has been released after nearly 21 years in prison.

Convicted Norwegian Viggo Kristiansen was acquitted on Thursday of charges of raping and murdering two girls aged eight and ten in 2000. Judge Tonje Vang of the Borgarting Court of Appeal in Oslo said he had been wrongfully imprisoned for 21 years.

Kristiansen and the prosecutor’s office accepted the unanimous verdict in the so-called Baneheia case as expected, Norwegian media reported. It is therefore legally binding.

“I suffered every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year for 21 years,” Kristiansen said in a letter read by his lawyer Bjørn Andre Gulstad after the verdict. However, the suffering experienced by the children’s relatives was much worse than what happened to him. He now asks for rest so that he can start a new life. “The rest of life begins today,” he wrote.

Kristiansen was sentenced to 21 years in preventive detention in 2002 for rape and murder, but had always maintained his innocence. The case will reopen in early 2021. DNA findings were evaluated and could not link Kristiansen to the crimes or the crime scene – the Baneheia area in the city of Kristiansand. On the other hand, traces of a man who had been convicted with him were found on both girls. (aeg/sda/dpa)