Svein Holden (born 23 August 1973) is a Norwegian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

having

prosecuted 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. The prosecution is the legal party responsible f ...

several major criminal cases in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Together with prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh Holden 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 ...

. Born in

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a List of cities in Norway, city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Østfold Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipal ...

, Holden 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 ...

from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

in 1999. He then worked one year for the

Ministry of Justice and the Police The Royal Ministry of Justice and Public Security () is a Norwegian government ministry that oversees justice, the police, and domestic intelligence. The main purpose of the ministry is to provide for the maintenance and development of the basic ...

. Between 2001 and 2005 he worked at Oslo Police District. Since 2006 he has worked as

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 ...

at the Public Prosecutors of Oslo. He was prosecutor during the trial against former Lyn Football sports director

Morgan Andersen Morgan Andersen (born 7 April 1966) is a retired Norwegian ice hockey player. He hails from Yven in Tune. During his active ice hockey career he played for Stjernen, Mora IK and Lillehammer IK. He last played for Stjernen in 1998. He played for ...

. During a trial in Fredrikstad District Court in 2010 he accidentally fired a starting gun which he believed not to be loaded. The firing had no adverse consequences. Among other important criminal cases which Holden has prosecuted are the Skøyen case following the murder of Vegard Bjerck in 2008, the district court trial of the gang murder where

Stig Millehaugen Stig Millehaugen (born 8 May 1969) is a Norwegian criminal who has been convicted for a number of crimes, including armed robbery, the 1992 murder of a prison guard during escape, prison escape in 2000, and the murder of Pakistani-Norwegian gang ...

was sentenced to 21 years of

containment Containment was a Geopolitics, geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II. The name was loosely related to the term ''Cordon sanitaire ...

(the maximum penalty in Norway, which can possibly be extended indefinitely) for the killing of Mohammed Javed in 2009, and trial following the attempted murder of B Gang leader Ghulam Abbas, which ended with conviction in 2009.

References

Living people 1973 births Norwegian prosecutors University of Oslo alumni People from Fredrikstad 2011 Norway attacks 21st-century Norwegian lawyers 21st-century Norwegian civil servants {{Norway-law-bio-stub