Oslo prison violence case prompts new registration system

Norway’s Correctional Service Supervisory Council is introducing a new registration system after a prison officer was charged with assaulting an inmate, Dagbladet reports.

The move follows a video from Oslo prison that showed the incident, which took place on August 13, 2025. The officer was suspended and charged with bodily assault and grossly negligent breach of official duty. The trial is due to begin on September 9.

“We are now introducing a registration system that will give us a better basis for mapping the extent of violence and following up individual cases,” council chair Verna Rege Nilssen told TV 2, which first reported on the video.

The council is responsible for ensuring that inmates in Norwegian prisons receive fair and appropriate treatment. Nilssen told Dagbladet that the body had always treated reports of violence with the utmost seriousness.

The new system is intended to show immediately how many inquiries concern violence and which prisons they relate to. Nilssen said the council was new and still developing.

She also cautioned that the figures received by the council might not reflect the true scale of violence in Norwegian prisons. People who are able to mobilise and report incidents are the ones who are heard, she said, while those who need help most may not always come forward. The council can therefore contact inmates directly to ask whether they want to talk.

In this case, Oslo prison director Nils Leyell Finstad reported the officer himself in November 2025. He said he did so to obtain a prosecutorial assessment of the matter. It was the first time he had reported an employee.

“I have lost everything after this. It is good that things are happening; perhaps it can help others,” the injured man told Dagbladet.

The charged officer denies criminal liability. Through his former defence lawyer, Atle Sønsteli Johansen, he told TV 2 that events had unfolded very quickly and that he believed the other officers were losing control of the inmate. He said the situation had been chaotic and that he might have misunderstood it in hindsight.

Petar Sekulic is now defending the officer. Dagbladet has been unable to reach him.