– He hasn’t made a final decision on whether he wants to run – it’s a matter of what they want.
So says lawyer Arvid Sjødin, who represents Birgitte Tengs’ cousin the same age, to Dagbladet. The client is expected to explain himself on the witness stand next Wednesday in the Haugaland and Sunnhordland District Court, but his participation is therefore uncertain.
REACTS: Arvid Sjødin has been his cousin’s lawyer for several years. He reacts strongly to the tactics of Johny Vassbakk’s defenders. Photo: Carina Johansen / Dagbladet
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Read the false confession
The cousin’s testimony comes towards the end of the seven-week trial of Johny Vassbakk (52), who was charged with Birgitte’s murder 27 years ago. The 40-year-old father of a family living in Spain is called up by Vassbakk defenders Stian Kristensen and Stian Bråstein.
However, Sjødin strongly reacted to the fact that Kristensen and Bråstein repeatedly brought up their cousin during the ongoing trial, despite the fact that in 1998 he was finally acquitted of the murder, and in September he overturned the verdict where he was ordered to compensate Birgitte’s parents.
During their opening presentation, defense attorneys read the entire court verdict against the cousin from 1997, including his entire false confession, which he later recanted. Birgitte’s parents reacted strongly to the level of detail of the confession, which was conceived as a “film script”.
– I still think it’s the cousin
Furthermore, the documentation presented by the defense shows that the cousin was considered by the carabinieri to be a so-called mode candidate for some previous episodes of sexually deviant behaviour.
stigmatized
According to defendants, the purpose of the presentation of the material was to demonstrate that the cousin had been stigmatized at the time, and then wrongly convicted – this as an alleged parallel with Vassbakk.
Kristensen and Bråstein have repeatedly stressed that the cousin is completely off the case. Similarly, Sjødin believes that in practice they again cast suspicion on him by pulling out all this documentation. The client now fears that he will continue along the same lines when he is questioned in court.
– He’s not interested in sitting like a goat and accepting accusations. But he has to see what happens, says the lawyer.
He previously claimed to be him Kristensen and Bråstein think they are “pissing off” their cousin through its strategy.
– We refer to the information we have received that you want to meet. If now it’s the case that it doesn’t happen anyway, then we will have to deal with it when the request comes, defender Stian Kristensen tells Dagbladet.
The main task of the defendants is to prove that people other than Vassbakk may be behind Birgitte’s murder, despite the fact that DNA matching his was found on the homicide victim’s tights.
DEFENDANTS: Stian Bråstein (tv) and Stian Kristensen are defending defendant Johny Vassbakk. Photo: Bjørn Langsem / Dagbladet
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asked
Author Bjorn Olav Jahr he wondered after the presentation by the defenders of the sentence of the feudal court against the cousin.
– They say they want to prove that their cousin has also been stigmatized, and that an insane investigation has led to an insane verdict. At the same time: reading the whole sentence – which is very time-consuming and very stigmatizing for the cousin – cast a light of suspicion on him, Jahr told Dagbladet.
The author believes that the cousin should perhaps have been represented in court.
– He is in fact acquitted, and the confession is an imaginary sequence of events, Jahr stressed.
ACCUSED: Johny Vassbakk (52) is accused of Birgitte’s murder. Here during a crime scene inspection two weeks ago. Photo: Lars Eivind Bones / Dagbladet
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The author also believes that the episodes of sexual deviations are trivial compared to the previous story of the defendant Vassbakk.
– The defendant has suffered serious assaults on women in a state of sexual excitement, he stresses.
– Naturally
The prosecution also included the cousin in the evidence, including reading the 2001 ruling in which he was awarded damages by the Norwegian state because the damages ruling went too far in designating him as the perpetrator.
– It is only natural that the cousin is mentioned, as part of the story of the case, State Attorney Thale Thomseth previously told Dagbladet.
Basically, the cousin has no obligation to meet, since he lives in Spain. Therefore, he may choose to provide an explanation on the video link if he wishes.
