Both the City of Oslo and a private firm hired in to run a youth welfare center are the latest to be accused of breaking the law, after a young woman from Ethiopia was murdered by a racist teenager while she was working at the center. The 18-year-old murderer was known to have ultra-right-wing attitudes and she was known to have been afraid of him.
Tamima Nibras Juhar, age 34, was working a night shift at the youth welfare center last August when she was stabbed to death by the young man, a German citizen originally from Serbia who came to Norway in 2013 when he was just five years old. Since he claimed in court that his attack on the woman was “politically motivated,” he’s also been charged with terrorism.
His record of violence and racism while living with foster parents in the mountains of Valdres was known to police and their domestic intelligence agency PST, but wasn’t shared with school officials when he was abruptly moved back to Oslo in February of 2024. He was 16 then, and newspaper Avisa Oslo has reported that he’d been violent and made death threats against his own foster parents.
Labour authorities have already criticized the private company, Gemt AS, hired by Oslo officials to run the youth welfare center where he was living and supposed to be getting job training. The state authorities have claimed Gemt had no routines or measures in place to avoid violence, threats or other dangerous situations at the center. It should have, they claimed, since welfare workers can be targets of such.
The authorities also claimed there were no measures in place to protect those working alone, to make risk evaluations or prevent violent or threatening situations. Newspaper Aftenposten reported last month that Gemt’s residential center in Oslo’s Kampen district has since been closed, while Gemt has denied the complaints against it and countered that it did evaluate risk, defended its operations and views the murder as an isolated incident.
Now another state evaluation has concluded that municipal officials in Oslo also have violated child welfare law by failing to follow up on its measures, and failing to offer necessary help, care and protection for those in need. “When serious and deeply tragic incidents occur, we work to gain an overview and investigate,” Mari Hagve, director for social- and child protection at Statsforvalteren told NRK this week. “We have asked (municipal officials in) Oslo to evaluate the situation that led to legal violations.”
The state authorities have demanded a response in early February, while yet another evaluation by consulting firm KPMG is due later this month. It’s been hired to look into how the Oslo district responsible for the 18-year-old, Bjerke bydel, had followed him up. He was supposed to have been back at school from August 18 but failed to show up. He committed murder six days later, in an admittedly racist act that prompted tributes to his victim and demonstrations against racism.
He now faces murder charges expanded to include terrorism since he’s claimed the murder was politically motivated. Prosecutors also claim his racist crime was meant to spread fear among the public. They could announce on Tuesday that he has been cleared as mentally fit to stand trial.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
