Hamse Ali has been sentenced to 45 days’ imprisonment for deliberately having lied to the police about being subjected to racist violence in Bergen in 2024.
The judgment was delivered today by the Gulating Court of Appeal.
– My client is very disappointed by the outcome. It was a unanimous acquittal in the District Court, which has now been turned completely on its head, defence counsel Anette Vangsnes Askevold told NRK.
Despite the fact that Ali’s lies were quickly exposed, he nevertheless escaped punishment in the Hordaland District Court, which accepted the peculiar explanation that Ali struggled with “false memories”. This was asserted by neuropsychologist Knut Dalen, whom the defence had called as an expert witness.
The prosecutor in the case swallowed the bluff whole.
Even a first-year law student would, admittedly, have been able to procure an expert supporting the opposite conclusion.
The assault on Ali, which existed only in his own imagination, provoked strong reactions. A torchlight procession was held through the city, and articles appeared in the media about the dangerous racism. Large sums were collected for Ali before Spleis halted the fundraising campaign when it became known that Ali had never been assaulted. He had simply fallen from an electric scooter while intoxicated.
A considerable portion of the money collected under false pretences has still not been accounted for by Ali.
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