Norway is eagerly awaiting Monday, when a three-judge panel of the Oslo District Court will sentence Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Høiby, who faces a 40-count indictment, including four counts of rape, will follow the announcement of the verdict via video link for unspecified medical reasons.
While the prosecution is asking for a sentence of seven years and seven months in prison, his defense believes that he should serve a year and a half. Høiby denies the most serious charges, but admitted to lesser crimes related to drugs and traffic violations, writes BBC.
Family drama in the shadow of the trial
The whole case takes place during an extremely difficult period for the royal family. The health condition of Høiby’s mother, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, is seriously impaired and she was put on the waiting list for a lung transplant a little over a week ago. The doctors clearly stated that the general rule is to put on the list patients who, according to estimates, have the most years left to live.
Despite her serious illness, Mette-Marit, accompanied by her husband, Crown Prince Haakon, visited her son in prison. Høiby has been in custody since the beginning of February, and repeated requests by his defense for his release, including a recent one so that he could be with his sick mother, have been rejected.
Due to the family situation, Crown Prince Haakon reduced his public duties to be with his wife. Public sympathy for Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who has suspended all public engagements and wears a nasal cannula to help her breathe, is in stark contrast to the mood at the start of the trial.
At the time, there was public outrage over revelations about her friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Details of the indictment
During the trial, which ended almost three months ago, the future king and queen of Norway stayed away from the courtroom. Crown Prince Haakon said he was trying to balance “support for Marius in the situation he found himself in” with understanding for the women who testified in the proceedings and their families.
The four women who accuse Høiby of rape managed to remain anonymous. The prosecution claims that the rapes took place while the women were asleep or incapacitated after previous voluntary intercourse. In one of the cases there was penetration.
Prosecutors are seeking three years in prison for one count of rape, and two years each for the remaining three. However, as May-Len Skilbrei, professor of criminology from the University of Oslo, explains, in the Norwegian judiciary, individual sentences are not added together automatically, so it will not necessarily be clear how the judges will arrive at the final total sentence.
The court prohibited the photography of the victims and the accused, but anonymity was not granted to his ex-girlfriend, the well-known influencer Nora Haukland. Høiby denies that he abused, beat and choked her, and her face became one of the few that the public could see.
Confessions and other charges
Out of a total of 40 counts in the indictment, the prosecutor’s office is seeking a guilty verdict for 39 of them. Numerous counts refer to mental and physical abuse of ex-girlfriends. Several of the allegations concern a woman who has become known in the media as the “Frogner woman”, after the posh Oslo neighborhood where she lives.
Høiby partially admitted grievous bodily harm and abuse in her case, but denies “sexually disturbing filming” of her or any other woman without consent.
Among the charges he admitted to were trafficking 3.5 kilograms of marijuana, driving without a license, reckless driving and one count of violating a restraining order. A few days before the sentencing, he was transferred to Ila prison outside Oslo.
Given that he will hear the verdict via video link, it is unlikely that the dramatic scene from the beginning of the trial, when he burst into tears in front of the judges, will be repeated.
The future of the monarchy is in question
While the verdict marks the end of legal proceedings that began with Høiby’s arrest in August 2024, it does not resolve the deeper crisis rocking Norway’s royal family. Høiby was never a member of the royal house, but he grew up with his half-brothers and half-sister, and a long prison sentence would cast a shadow on the whole family.
More than 20 years ago, King Harald’s late sister, Princess Ragnhild, predicted trouble in an interview, saying of the heir to the throne couple: “When they have their child, poor Marius will be nobody and nothing.”
Experts warn that the monarchy is in a difficult situation. “Things can’t go on like this, they just can’t. This is an institutional crisis and a huge crisis of trust,” says Peggy Simcic Brønn, professor emeritus at BI Norwegian Business School. “There will be international outrage this week and, if they just bury their heads in the sand and run, they will only make the situation worse.”
Finding the right answer is now even more difficult due to the deteriorating health of Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Her television interview in March, in which she tried to explain her friendship with Epstein by saying she “didn’t know he was a sex offender or a predator,” raised more questions than it offered answers, according to some commentators.
As a result, the crown couple’s 25th wedding anniversary celebration in August has been canceled, and any focus on repairing the royal family’s reputation will have to wait.
(TYPE/Source: Index.hr/Photo: Screenshot: X)
