A mistrial has been declared in Norway after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of a suspected hitman whose victims include a British national, raising fresh questions about the UK’s willingness to extradite suspects facing the death penalty or life without parole.
The defendant, a 47-year-old dual Norwegian-Swedish citizen, was accused of orchestrating three contract killings between 2018 and 2021. Among the dead was a London-based property developer whose body was found in a shallow grave near Oslo. The prosecution presented phone records, financial transactions, and testimony from a former accomplice who turned state witness.
Sources confirm the jury deliberated for six days before informing the judge they were ‘hopelessly deadlocked’ on all counts. The presiding judge, Anders Hauge, declared a mistrial on Wednesday. The defendant remains in custody pending a retrial, which prosecutors say they will pursue ‘vigorously’.
But the case has ignited a wider diplomatic spat. The victim’s family has called on the UK government to request extradition of the accused to face trial in Britain, where the murder of a UK citizen abroad can be prosecuted under the Criminal Justice Act. However, the Home Office is known to be cautious. Norway does not impose the death penalty and has abolished custodial sentences exceeding 21 years. The UK’s extradition treaty with Norway, signed in 2013, permits refusal if the requested state does not guarantee a sentence equivalent to what the suspect would face in Britain.
For the victim’s relatives, the calculus is brutal. ‘He walked into a courtroom in Oslo and walked out a free man – for now,’ said the victim’s mother, who asked not to be named. ‘My son was British. He deserved British justice. But the system is comfortable letting a killer sit in a Norwegian prison for a few years before trying again.’
Internal documents seen by this reporter reveal that the Crown Prosecution Service has prepared a provisional extradition request, but it has been held back by Whitehall concerns that the Norwegian penal system is ‘too lenient’ to deter organised crime. The Home Office declined to comment on ‘operational matters’, but a senior source said: ‘We cannot send a man to face a life sentence when his only crime, as far as Norway is concerned, is already being punished.’
The deadlocked jury has emboldened critics of Norway’s legal system. ‘This is what happens when you let judges – not juries – decide sentences,’ said a retired Norwegian detective familiar with the case. ‘The jury heard the evidence for weeks. They couldn’t agree. That’s a failure of the system.’
Meanwhile, defence lawyers are pushing for bail, arguing that the retrial violates double jeopardy protections. The prosecution is expected to counter that Norwegian law allows retrials when juries deadlock.
For the UK, the case is a distraction from its own extradition headaches. The government is still smarting from the European Court of Human Rights’ intervention in the Julian Assange affair. But the family of the murdered developer is not interested in geopolitics. ‘We are talking about a professional assassin who killed three people in cold blood,’ said the family solicitor. ‘The UK needs to ask itself: are we a safe haven for hitmen?’
The answer may depend on how far Whitehall is willing to push a treaty that was designed to close legal loopholes, not open them. As one former diplomat put it: ‘We can keep him in Norway, or we can bring him home. Both options stink.’
