A young Swedish man has admitted to murdering 24-year-old Heikki Bjørklund Paltto after breaking into the apartment Paltto shared with three other roommates in Oslo’s Majorstuen district two weeks ago. Makaveli Lindén of Uppsala has also admitted to robbing another Norwegian at knifepoint earlier that same day.
State broadcaster NRK reported Tuesday that Lindén, arrested in France last week, has also accepted the criminal charges against him and is willing to be extradited to face trial in Norway. His defense attorney, Øystein Storrvik, also said that Lindén has expressed regret and claims he was on drugs at the time of both the robbery and murder.
French police, who arrested him in Dijon after Scandinavian police had tracked his escape route through his mobile phone use, had initially described Lindén as both aggressive and violent. Norwegian police said Tuesday that he was cooperative during questioning and did not resist their extradition order.
He has said that both his robbery and murder victims were selected at random and that he only was motivated by a need for cash and valuables. “He is regretful, exhausted and under extreme pressure,” Storrvik told reporters.
Norwegian prosecutor Christian Hatlo said it still may take a month or two before Lindén can be extradited to Oslo because of various French regulations. “We hope we can do this as quickly as possible,” Hatlo told NRK. “Now it’s just up to the French authorities.”
newsinenglish.no staff
