Three Africans have been convicted following an aggravated robbery involving what the court describes as “sadistic violence”. The perpetrators played rock, paper, scissors to decide who would strike.

(KLØFTA): Two young men were picked up by someone they believed was a friend. He drove them to an industrial area in Kløfta. Under a railway underpass, they were beaten, whipped, and forced to transfer NOK 276,000 via Revolut. The violence lasted for more than an hour and a half. Along the way, the perpetrators played rock, paper, scissors to decide who would strike next.

It was a warm summer evening in late July 2024. Henrik (19) and his friend Jonas were going to take the train from Årnes to Oslo. As they were walking towards the station at around half past seven, Nahom appeared in a Tesla.

They knew each other well. They lived in the same area, trained at the same gym, and had mutual friends. Nahom offered to drive them to Kløfta station. He was going that way anyway, he said.

Henrik and Jonas got into the back seat. There was already one person sitting in the front passenger seat.

What Henrik did not know was that Nahom had been involved in planning this exact moment for up to two weeks.

The trap

Nahom did not drive towards the station. He turned down towards an industrial area in Dyrskuvegen and steered the car into an underpass beneath the railway tracks. Someone was already sitting there waiting. Nahom stopped the car.

It was in this industrial area by Dyrskuevegen that the sadistic violence took place. Photo: Google Maps

What happened in the next few seconds changed everything.

Three masked men appeared on either side of the car. Henrik and Jonas were dragged out and pushed up against a concrete wall. In front of them now stood Nahom and at least six others. Nahom was holding a metal baton. The masked men were holding sticks.

One of the masked men was Mahad (20). He was part of the group that had planned the robbery.

The perpetrators emptied both men’s pockets. They took their telephones and belts. From Jonas they also took a watch and a wallet.

Then they began demanding the code to Henrik’s telephone.

“They played rock, paper, scissors”

Henrik refused. He was thrown to the ground. Nahom struck him on the knee with the baton, kicked him, and hit him in the stomach. Other perpetrators kicked him and struck him with sticks. Some stamped on his head while he lay down holding his hands around his head.

Henrik gave in and unlocked the telephone. But when the perpetrators demanded that he use Face ID to transfer money via online banking, he refused again. He turned his face away every time they held the telephone up to him.

The perpetrators then said that they would go after Jonas instead. Jonas was kicked, struck, and hit on the ankle with a baton. He was whipped with sticks. Jonas began to scream.

That ultimately helped. Henrik gave up resisting and allowed them to use Face ID.

But the transfers took time. The money had to be moved from Henrik’s bank account to his Revolut account, and from there onwards to other persons’ Revolut accounts. Many of the attempts were rejected by the bank. The process lasted from 19.57 to 21.31 – more than an hour and a half.

And while they waited, the violence continued.

The court describes it in the judgment as follows: masked perpetrators played rock, paper, scissors to decide who would whip Henrik with a belt. The one who won went over and whipped him. This happened several times.

The court uses the word “sadistic”.

During the evening, the perpetrators also threatened that one of them was homosexual, and that he would rape Henrik and Jonas.

The friend who smoked cannabis with his victims

In the middle of all this, something happened that is difficult to understand.

Henrik had 10 grams of cannabis on him. Nahom distributed it to the other perpetrators. Then, while the others were occupied with the money transfers, Nahom sat down and smoked cannabis together with Henrik and Jonas.

He apologised to both of them.

Nahom was 18 years old – three days short of his 19th birthday. In court, he explained that he was to receive under ten per cent of the robbery proceeds for his role. He expected around NOK 10,000.

NOK 276,000 via Revolut

In the end, the perpetrators succeeded in transferring the money. At 20.18, NOK 44,900 was sent to one Revolut account. At 20.46, NOK 50,000 was sent to Mahad’s account. And at 21.31 – almost two hours after Henrik and Jonas were dragged out of the Tesla – NOK 182,000 was transferred to a third account.

The last account belonged to Dawit (19), who was telephoned at home and told that he could earn money through cryptocurrency. He took the bus to Kløfta, handed over his telephone, and got it back five minutes later with NOK 182,000 in the account. It was then that he was told that it had been a robbery.

Dawit pulled his neck gaiter up over his mouth so as not to be recognised and walked through the underpass. He saw Henrik and Jonas sitting on the ground. He asked whether they were all right. They said yes.

In total, NOK 276,000 was transferred from Henrik’s account.

“If you go to the police, we will take your families”

Before Henrik and Jonas were allowed to leave, the threats came: the perpetrators knew where they lived. They would come for them and their families if they contacted the police.

Henrik did not dare report it immediately.

They were eventually picked up by Henrik’s girlfriend. Henrik was bruised, with contusions and grazes. The next day, the pain in his stomach became so severe that he had to go to hospital.

Behind the robbery lay conflicts in a young environment around Kløfta and Årnes. Henrik was involved in the buying and selling of narcotics, and several in the circle believed that they had been cheated by him. Nahom knew that Henrik had a large amount of money in his account – money which, according to Nahom, came from narcotics sales.

Nahom himself had lent Henrik NOK 10,000. Repayment had been agreed for November 2024. The robbery took place in July.

Third man exposed by telecom data

Mahad denied having been present. He explained in court that he had smoked cannabis by the underpass earlier in the evening, but that he then crossed a field to a friend where he played PlayStation for two to three hours.

The court did not believe him.

Telecom data showed that Mahad’s telephone was connected to the base station nearest the crime scene throughout the robbery period – from 19.14 to 20.57. Nahom’s telephone had connected to shared internet from Mahad’s telephone during the robbery. And at 20.46 – in the middle of the robbery – NOK 50,000 was transferred from Henrik’s Revolut account to Mahad.

Mahad explained that he had left the telephone behind at the underpass, and that a friend had looked after it. He claimed that the money was cryptocurrency that an acquaintance had transferred to him. The court found the explanation “clearly adapted to the technical evidence”.

An outgoing call from Mahad’s telephone to a friend at 21.16 – while the robbery was still ongoing – he could not explain.

Mahad had not given a statement to the police and gave his version only during the main hearing. The court remarked that this weakened the evidential value of the explanation.

The judgment

Romerike and Glåmdal District Court delivered judgment on 8 April 2026.

Nahom (20) was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and three months for aggravated robbery, robbery, and driving while intoxicated. The court attached weight to his central role: he planned the robbery, transported the victims to the scene, and used violence with a baton. That he explained in court that he had broken with the criminal environment, stopped using intoxicants, and become Christian was not enough to justify a lighter sentence in such a serious case.

Mahad (21) was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and four months for aggravated robbery, robbery, and money laundering.

Dawit (21) was acquitted of robbery. The court found it unproven that he knew of the robbery before the money had been transferred into his account. Instead, he was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to 120 hours of community service – by a divided court. The minority considered the offence too serious for community service.

The two convicted robbers were also ordered to pay NOK 80,000 in compensation for non-pecuniary damage to Henrik and NOK 60,000 to Jonas.

In court, Henrik explained that he feels helpless after what happened. He has sleep problems and nightmares. He struggles to trust people and is afraid in large crowds.

Jonas said the same. He has stayed away from Kløfta and Jessheim since that evening. The ankle that was hit by the baton caused him to have difficulty walking for a week afterwards.

Both were around 19 years old on that summer evening when they got into the car of someone they believed was a friend.