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Thursday, March 28, 2024

High court boosts MP’s jail term

Norway’s Supreme Court has added four months to the jail term handed down to Mazyar Keshvari, a former Member of Parliament for the conservative Progress Party. He’ll now need to spend 11 months in prison after being convicted of defrauding the Parliament itself.

Keshvari was charged with delivering 72 claims for travel expense compensation over a period of three years, for trips he never took. He thus unduly received NOK 450,000, which he has since repaid.

The high court, however, ruled that Keshvari badly exploited an honour system at the Parliament, and thus took advantage of the taxpayers’ trust. Lower courts had convicted and sentenced him, but prosecutors appealed to the Supreme Court on the grounds such serious fraud demanded a stricter sentence.

The court agreed. Keshvari had admitted his guilt, has since left the Progress Party and withdrew from all his political positions. He had served in Parliament as a substitute for party leader Siv Jensen when she served as finance minister in the Conservatives-led government coalition. Progress withdrew from the government in January, however, and Jensen resumed her duties in Parliament.

newsinenglish.no staff

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