A Norwegian man who sent emails and posted tweets threatening to kill Portland police officers last summer has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Espen Brungodt, 29, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby for making threatening interstate communications. He pleaded guilty on Sept. 26.
Police went on high alert after the threats on Aug. 3 because they came after the slayings of police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas. Those, in turn, had followed fatal police shootings of black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.
The threats led to the evacuation of the Cumberland County Courthouse because of its proximity to the police headquarters in Portland, along with a parking garage on Newbury Street, both of which were mentioned in the threats.
Brungodt allegedly “yearned” to be arrested and an affadavit filed after he was taken into custody indicated that he was satisfied with the effect of his threats. An FBI agent testified that Brungodt told him he had a mental disorder that caused him to become obsessed with the idea of being arrested in the U.S.
His emails said: “Time for more police to die. We are getting our Sig Sauer MCX .223-caliber rifles ready, and very soon, my partners will head down to Portland Police Department on 109 Middle St. There they will shoot and kill as many police officers as they can. Meanwhile, I will get into position at the top of Cumberland County Parking Garage on 188 Newbury St. I have booby trapped the garage with explosives, so don’t go there. Time to take action. More dead cops.”
Police searched the garage with bomb-sniffing dogs and found no explosives.
The emails were traced to Brungodt’s Portland hotel room, where he was arrested a few hours after sending the threats. He had been in the U.S. with his family on a nine-day vacation from their home in Bergen, Norway, and had been scheduled to leave the day after he sent the threats.
After Brungodt’s arrest, friends and acquaintances said the incident shocked them because Brungodt had never previously expressed any antipathy toward law enforcement and had no interest in violence or weapons.
Hornby, who sentenced Brungodt, said the email contained a “brutal threat of violence and death that resulted in complete disruption of public services and instilled public fear.”
But Hornby noted that Brungodt had a history of mental health problems and no criminal record, factors that argued for a lesser sentence than the five years and fine of $250,000 that he could have imposed.
As part of a plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed that it will support a request by Brungodt to transfer his sentence to Norway, allowed under a treaty between the U.S. and Norway known as the International Prisoner Transfer Program, which began in 1977.
The program is designed to relieve some hardships on offenders who are imprisoned far from home, and to facilitate their rehabilitation.
If he serves his sentence in the U.S., Brungodt will be removed from the country after his jail term is completed and barred from re-entering in the future.
(pressherald)
A number of British tourists are in hospital after being thrown into the icy seas off Norway when their speedboat hit a water fountain near the town of Harstad.
Although they cross the European airspace every now and then, their deployment in the Old Continent is somehow rare. As of yet, there has been no official statement from the U.S. military about the reasons why such nuclear research aircraft was deployed there. However, many sources suggest the aircraft was tasked with investigating the spike in Iodine levels detected in northern Europe since the beginning of January.
“If your nations do not want to see America moderate its commitment to this alliance, each of your capitals needs to show support for our common defense,” he said.
At the same time, the US has been clear that we need more defence spending, and fairer burden-sharing. This has been my top priority since I took office in 2014. After many years of cuts, I am glad to say that we have turned a corner. Our latest figures, which we published yesterday, show that defence spending among European Allies and Canada increased by 3.8% in real terms in 2016. And that is roughly 10 billion US dollars. This is significant, but it is not enough. We have to continue to increase defence spending across Europe and Canada. So, we need to keep the momentum.
Polish Parliamentary Speaker Marek Kuchciński opens a two-day visit to Norway on Tuesday, at the invitation of Olemic Thommessen, President of the Norwegian Parliament.
Minister of Fisheries of Norway, Per Sandberg, on Tuesday welcomed expansion of Iran-Norway cooperation in various fisheries and aqua culture domains.
The Norwegian Army is to be equipped with two new ground-based air defence systems, the country’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 6 February.
Serbia maintains good, stable relations with Norway, Serbian Deputy PM and Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said Tuesday, noting Norway was an important partner of Serbia and that bilateral economic cooperation should be boosted.
Norway, said Dacic, is an important partner of Serbia, while Norway, according to its officials, sees Serbia as its “partner plus” in the region.
Norway’s Norner Research will lead the Euro 2.5 million FuturePack project focusing on the development of new technologies for bioplastics and recycling of plastics packaging.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in Zagreb on Monday that Croatia was a country of stability in Southeast Europe, exporting stability to its neighbours.
The Embassy of Sri Lanka to Norway celebrated the 69th Anniversary of Independence on 4th February 2017 at the embassy with the participation of over 150 members of the Sri Lankan community.
The programme commenced with the hoisting of the National Flag, followed by the singing of the National Anthem in Sinhala and Tamil. Two minutes silence was observed to honour those who participated in the independence struggle and sacrificed their lives safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.
The 69th Independence Day message of President Maithripala Sirisena was read in Tamil and Sinhala.
Norwegian Finance Minister Siv Jensen in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Oslo Mohammad Hassan Habibollahzadeh underlined the need for the removal of banking obstacles hindering the broadening of trade ties between the two countries.
Feb. 6 is the annual Sami National Day, and this year’s event marks the 100th anniversary of the date when Norwegian and Swedish Sami officials came together to hold the first Sami congress in Trondheim in 1917.
Norway’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia claims the Gulf kingdom has had “a tremendous influence on the spread of the Islamist ideology”, but fears that the West is turning a blind eye.
Denmark and Norway announced they have removed travel warnings to Egypt’s South Sinai cities of Sharm El-Shiekh, Dahab and Saint Catherine, state news agency MENA reported on Friday.
The minister for agriculture and food, Norway, Jon Georg Dale, will participate at a “Consultation on climate change and food security”, to be held at M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai February 13.
Irish-headquartered energy and environmental group DCC has announced the purchase of Esso’s petrol network in Norway. Costing £235 million (€273.41m),it is the group’s largest retail deal to date.
The Norwegian government will continue its humanitarian aid to the Kurdistan Region, said a Norwegian official on Tuesday.
A total of 462,000 children are at immediate risk of death from severe malnutrition. Among the 2.2 million displaced Yemenis, 75 per cent identified food as their top priority.
The Minnesota National Guard will host over 100 members of the Norwegian Home Guard as part of a reciprocal troop exchange at Camp Ripley Feb. 9 -23, 2017.
The Honorable Gro Brundtland, the first female prime minister of Norway and a former director-general of the World Health Organization, will present the 31st address in the Adlai E. Stevenson Memorial Lecture Series. Brundtland’s address, “Our Common Future: Sustainable Development and Addressing Climate Change,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 23 at Westbrook Auditorium on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. It is free and open to the public.