No charges in Obiora case
The Attorney General has ruled that no crime was committed when Eugene Obiora died during his arrest in Trondheim in September 2006.
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Obiora, 48, died after four policemen put him in a chokehold and forced him to the ground on his stomach at a public office in Trondheim.
The new investigation, sparked by widespread protest after an internal police investigation found no wrongdoing, concluded that there are no grounds to prosecute the police officers involved in the arrest.
The Attorney General writes that the arrest situation was such that it was permissible to use such dangerous methods. A central issue has been to what extent the officers realized that the application of such force could result in death.
The Police Academy has said that forcing a subject to the ground on their stomach is standard procedure in the arrest of uncooperative people, and that knowledge about the choking mechanism was not widely known at the Academy, the Police Directorate or even health personnel before the Obiora case.
The new report concludes that enough doubt exists about what the officers could or should have understood about the deterioration of Obiora's condition, and so insufficient evidence to support a prosecution.
The conclusion is in line with that of the Special unit for police affairs, which investigated the Obiora arrest twice.
Lawyer Abid Q. Raja has taken up the case for Obiora's next of kin, and based the demand for a prosecution of willful murder based on the Norwegian-Nigerian being choked twice, once in the office, and one more time outside.
The case has generated considerable public outcry, with demonstrations and actions keeping the controversy alive.
Arild M. Jonassen and Ida Torp Halvorsen
Aftenposten English Web Desk
Jonathan Tisdall
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