Inga Bejer Engh (born 31 December 1970) is a Norwegian

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

, former

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

, and Children's ombudsman between 2018 and 2024. Together with Svein Holden she prosecuted terror suspect

Anders Behring Breivik Anders Behring Breivik (; born 13 February 1979), officially named Fjotolf Hansen from 2017 to 2025, and Far Skaldigrimmr Rauskjoldr av Northriki since March 2025, is a Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist and mass murderer. He carried out the 2011 No ...

in the 2012 trial following the

2011 Norway attacks The 2011 Norway attacks, also called 22 July () or 22/7 in Norway, were two domestic terrorism, domestic terrorist attacks by far-right politics, far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik against the politics of Norway, government, the civil ...

Early life and career

Engh is educated

Candidate of Law Candidate ( or ) is the name of various academic degrees, which are today mainly awarded in Scandinavia. The degree title was phased out in much of Europe through the 1999 Bologna Process, which has re-formatted academic degrees in Europe. The de ...

. Following law school she worked with

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

for the United Nations in New York City. Upon return to Norway her first job was at Drammen District Court later Oslo District Court and Asker and Bærum Police District. At 32 she began working as a prosecutor. She has prosecuted several major criminal cases including the much publicized methanol distribution case in Østfold in the early 2000s, a case where a man received ten years prison after having thrown acid on his wife, several major drugs and sexual abuse cases. She also prosecuted Tore W. Tvedt, one of the witnesses in the Breivik case, in 2002. When Edward Snowden was awarded the Ossietzky Prize for 2016, but had no guarantees against being extradited to the United States if he traveled to Norway to receive it, the case came up in Oslo District Court in the form of a private lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice. On 27 June 2016, Engh dismissed the case and also ordered Snowden to pay the state's legal costs of NOK 7,000. In 2018, Engh was appointed the Children's Ombudsman of Norway for a period of six years, succeeding Anne Lindboe. Her term ended in April 2024, and in November 2023 she was appointed assistant director of the Norwegian Police Security Service.

Personal life

Inga Bejer Engh is married and has two young boys. The youngest was born in 2009 and was very Preterm birth, premature but has sustained no lasting medical problems. Her decision to become a lawyer was made in the Gymnasium (school)#North European countries, gymnasium (Norwegian equivalent to high school, now called ''videregående'').

References

1970 births Living people Children's Ombudsmen in Norway Norwegian prosecutors 2011 Norway attacks Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Norwegian lawyers 21st-century Norwegian lawyers 21st-century Norwegian civil servants Norwegian officials of the United Nations {{UN-bio-stub