BERGEN (VG) Brothers Magnus and Lars Peder Holøyen are fighting for compensation from the state after the so-called Tolga case. In October, they faced government lawyers in the Oslo District Court during a four-day trial.

In 2018, VG revealed that Lars Peder Holøyen and Magnus Holøyen had been registered as mentally disabled by the city government without a diagnosis. They were then placed under guardianship against their will.

A government-appointed investigation later determined that the process was inadequate “…at all the areas and levels that have been investigated”.

More than four years later, Tolga’s case is still pending in court.

In August 2022, VG ​​​​​​wrote that the brothers were demanding up to half a million kroner each in compensation from their hometown. The case was supposed to be submitted to the district court in January this year, but in September last year the parties reached a settlement.

based on Labor Court the settlement between the municipality of Tolga and the Holøyen brothers meant that each brother received NOK 200,000. In the agreement, the municipality apologized for certain wrongs that may have been committed which were a burden to the brothers, but is not responsible for the treatment they received, wrote NRK.

The state in the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness was sued because the Regional Governor of Home Affairs (now State Administrator) ruled that the brothers should be placed under guardianship.

This case emerged nearly three years after the summons was sent.

– It took time especially because, ahead of the trial against the state, we had to go through three courts, all the way to the Supreme Court, to clarify that the municipality can be held accountable. We cannot blame the state for the use of time, the lawyer brothers Nicolai V. Skjerdal told VG.

Skjerdal previously stated that the brothers demanded one million kroner each in compensation from the state.

He emphasized that this is still the case.

– We ask the court to provide compensation at the discretion of the court. We maintain that the level has to be significant vis-à-vis the country, around 1 million for each sibling.

In the summons, he wrote that compensation must “reflect the seriousness and duration of the offence”, and it must be of “real consequence to the authorities”.

– What we hold against the state is that brothers are placed under so-called voluntary guardianship against their will. Those are serious violations from time to time, and the state must compensate for them with reasonable compensation, Skjerdal told VG.

Skjerdal previously called the treatment of the brothers a serious violation of Article 3 i European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which regulates the prohibition of degrading treatment, as well as violations of Article 8 concerning the right to respect private life and family life.

– Lars Peder and Magnus Holøyen are seeking compensation for the injustices and abuses they have suffered by being wrongly registered as mentally disabled and placed under guardianship against their will without sufficient legal authority, says the subpoena to the Oslo district court .

Four days have been set aside for the trial, which begins on October 10.

Senior communications adviser Merete Romestrand at the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness wrote in an email to VG:

– As understood by the ministry, the claim for compensation against the state is based on the circumstances surrounding the District Governor in the Interior (now the State Administrator in the Interior) handling the trusteeship of the plaintiffs. The state has acknowledged that the decision to establish the trust for the two plaintiffs was invalid, and that the trust should have been revoked sooner.

Romestrand wrote that because the statutory requirements for trusteeship were not met, the state had recognized that establishing and maintaining a trust against the wishes of the plaintiff led to a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

– Therefore it is correct to give a selfless apology to the plaintiff for the mistakes the state has made, as was done, among others, by Prime Minister Erna Solberg on October 11, 2018.

Romestrand wrote that the country disputed that the conditions mentioned involved a violation of Article 3 of the Human Rights Convention.

– In addition, the state is of the opinion that there is no legal or factual basis for restitution under Article 13 of the ECHR as a result of a violation of Article 8 of the ECHR. Therefore, the state has filed a demand for the Oslo District Court to issue a decision that acquits the state.

– Beyond this, we are not providing any comment on the lawsuit at this time.