Eirik Jensen, 60, was jailed for 21 years on Monday, September 18, for taking bribes and turning a blind eye to the activities of one of Norway's top drug smugglers.
Litt vanskelig å fokusere på Eirik Jensen i forgrunnen med disse portrettene av samboeren bak… pic.twitter.com/HpE5OmvDm1
— Erle Marie Sørheim (@erlemarie) 15 September 2017
Tweet: "A little hard to focus on Eirik Jensen in the foreground with these portraits of his law partner behind him"
The main prosecution witness was the smuggler himself, Gjermund Cappelen, who got a reduced sentence of 15 years.
It comes nine months after a top Finnish police officer, Jari Aarnio, was jailed for 10 years for smuggling hashish into the country between 2011 and 2012.
But the prosecutors said he had been tipping off Cappelen's smuggling ring for at least 10 years by providing inside information about police and customs methods and staffing.
#Norway high-profile ex-cop #EirikJensen found guilty of aggravated #corruption, drug crimes. Norway's biggest corruption case ever!
— Håvar Bauck (@havar) 18 September 2017
He sent Cappelen cryptic text messages and was on his payroll for years.
"This case is unique in Norwegian legal history," said Oslo District Court Judge Kim Heger.
"Jensen actively and deliberately contributed to a well-organized and extensive import of hashish," he said.
Jensen had denied the charges and his lawyer said he would appeal.
"We lost the battle, but we hope to win the war," said his attorney, John Christian Elden.
Norway is currently ranked the world's sixth cleanest country by watchdog Transparency International, where Somalia, South Sudan and North Korea are the most corrupt.
