A 53-year-old woman who was charged with murdering her shipping executive husband, and making it look like a suicide, was acquitted by a court in Drammen on Friday. She’s now likely to be set free soon, after serving 738 days in custody while police investigated and prosecuted her case.
The woman was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for making threats and abusing other family members, and for attempting to influence witnesses in the sensational murder case. She’ll get credit, though, for her time spent in custody already, meaning she may be released in just a few months since convicts in Norway generally are eligible for parole after serving just two-thirds of their sentences.
Prosecutors had demanded she be held in prison for Norway’s maximum term of 21 years. They contended that she drugged her husband, Frontline shipping director Per Gunnar Asheim, placed him in her BMW and then set the car on fire. Asheim’s charred body was found in the car in a parking lot in Tranby on March 27, 2013.
The court acquitted her, though, on the basis of insufficient evidence. The woman had denied she killed her husband. It’s now up to the state prosecutor whether her acquittal will be appealed.
newsinenglish.no staff
