A top politician in Norway’s Sami Parliament who’d been charged with possession of child pornography was found dead late last week. His family has since confirmed that he took his own life.
Mikkel Eskil André Mikkelsen, age 35, had not contested the criminal charges against him following his arrest last autumn. He quickly resigned from the Sametinget in Karasjok, where he’d been the equivalent of a government minister, and cooperated with the police investigation both before and after he’d been held in custody for two weeks in November.
His defense attorney stressed that Mikkelsen ended up being facing charges of downloading and sharing visual images of sexual assaults on children, had confessed and faced a jail term of up to one year. His family opted to be open about his suicide, long a sensitive topic in Norway, adding that he’d been subjected to great strain in the months leading up to it.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
