Emilie Enger Mehl (born 8 August 1993) is a Norwegian politician for the Centre Party. She has served as minister of justice since 2021 and

Member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for Hedmark since 2017.

Personal life and education

Mehl was born in Lørenskog on 8 August 1993, a daughter of Eivind Mehl and Ellen Enger Müller. She holds a Master of laws (LL.M.) from the University of Oslo Faculty of Law.

Career

Parliament

Mehl was elected representative to the

Storting The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years ...

for the period 2017–2021 for the Centre Party. She was member of the Standing Committee on Justice from 2017 to 2020, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) from 2017 to 2021. From 2020 to 2021 she was member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence and of the

Enlarged Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence The Enlarged Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence is a special committee of the Parliament of Norway. It holds non-disclosed discussions with the government regarding important issues of foreign affairs, trade policy and security issues. Other i ...

. She was re-elected to the Storting for the period 2021–2025, and was replaced by deputy Margrethe Haarr while being part of the Støre's Cabinet from October 2021.

Local politics

She was elected representative to the

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irel ...

Hedmark Hedmark () was a county in Norway before 1 January 2020, bordering Trøndelag to the north, Oppland to the west, Akershus to the south, and Sweden to the east. The county administration is in Hamar. Hedmark and Oppland counties were merg ...

from 2015.

Minister of Justice

She was appointed minister of justice on 14 October 2021. At the time of her appointment, she became the country's youngest person to serve as minister of justice. Mehl laid down flowers, for the victims of the Kongsberg attack. The attack happened the day before she was appointed, and she was accompanied by the prime minister. In October 2021, she spoke about the issue of alleged abuse of power by police, during handling of drug cases. In early November, she focused on the recent shootings in the capital: eight young men had been shot (by other civilians) over the span of ten weeks. She rejected the Norwegian Correctional Service's proposal of reducing the amount of prisons from 32 to 13. In May 2022, she appeared in front of the Standing Committee on Justice to answer about the controversy regarding

Hans Sverre Sjøvold Hans Sverre Sjøvold (born 20 August 1957) is a Norwegian civil servant and former police chief. In 2022, he resigned as chief of Norwegian Police Security Service.https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/x8owll/sjoevold-gaar-av-som-pst-sjef. Verden ...

, chief of Police Security Service. He resigned the following month. There was a shortage of blank passports in May nd for some time later and that became a bottleneck for the authorities' issuing of passports. (Mehl had already warned in March 2022, of an upcoming period where many applicants for new passports—would have to wait for unreasonably long periods of time;

Thales Group Thales Group () is a French multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors. The company is headquartered in Paris ...

were responsible for the production of the passports). The government made a proposal to change the court system. Possible changes to the court system were being evaluated (as of May 2022). Regarding the proposed changes, she said that she wished to listen to pinions orvoices from the districts, rather than the strong opposition from legal experts - because the experts are mostly based in the capital city. In August 2022, Mehl recognized that Russian vessels posed a potential risk to Norwegian interests. Later in August, it was revealed that Mehl had declined the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers in Norway despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs having approved the request. Only weeks later did she give the same response as said ministry did. At the same time, Mehl didn't disclose these details when questioned about it in the Storting. The

Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs The Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs ( no, Kontroll- og konstitusjonskomiteen) is a standing committee of the Parliament of Norway. It holds a supervisory role in relation to the proceedings of the parliament and public se ...

notified that they would be setting up a hearing for the case, and would be calling Mehl, prime minister Støre and foreign minister

Anniken Huitfeldt Anniken Scharning Huitfeldt (born 29 November 1969) is a Norwegian historian and politician for the Labour Party. She has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2021. She previously served as Minister of Children and Equality from 2008 to 2 ...

in for questioning.

Since Q4 2022

On 17 October, she warned people to be on high alert and report suspicious drone activity. Later in October, Mehl ordered a full fact-finding on all institutions that have handled the investigations and judicial proceedings of the

Baneheia murders The Baneheia murders ( no, Baneheia-drapene) was a double rape and murder that occurred in Norway on 19 May 2000. The victims were two girls, 10-year-old Lena Sløgedal Paulsen and 8-year-old Stine Sofie Austegard Sørstrønen. They were found ...

. She added that the ministry of justice is now creating a mandate for the fact-finding. In October, Mehl also presented Beate Gangås as the new chief of the

Norwegian Police Security Service The Norwegian Police Security Service (, ) is the police security agency of Norway. The agency was previously known as ''POT'' (' or Police Surveillance Agency), the name change was decided by the Parliament of Norway on 2 June 2001. History an ...

. From 31 October, she had six days to answer to parliament; some MPs have said that a recent purchase of Chinese drones from DJI, should have been stopped. Previously, in January 2022, the Conservative Party expressed concerns for national security regarding the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest a ...

's process for acquiring Chinese drones from DJI. In response, Mehl called for a meeting with director of police Benedicte Bjørnland later that month. On 2 November 2022, Mehl was forced to withdraw an inquiry that the ministry of justice had ordered from the Police Directorate; the withdrawal happened 3 hours after media told about the inquiry. The Office of the Prime Minister contacted the leadership of the Centre Party, to express concern. The inquiry had desired to decentralize the national police force; furthermore, one goal was to create 20 new police stations - each with 5 police officers - in the districts; the inquiry was supposed to "map out the possibility for making large cuts, regarding police in the big cities". On November 9, media said that 3 of the 4 points of the inquiry, have not yet been stopped (by Mehl). On 4 November, Per-Willy Amundsen, leader of the Standing Committee on Justice said that it is incomprehensible that Mehl is not intervening and giving orders to the justice ministry and underlying agencies, regarding answers to questions about the case involving employment termination of a whistleblower at the

(''PST''). After having whistleblowed - in regard to Benedicte Bjørnland,

Roger Berg Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

and Kaare Songstad - the whistleblower was told that he would need two authorities to give him authorization - for access to classified information: a (relevant)

police chief The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

and also the chief of PST.https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/MonBQr/justisministeren-ber-om-full-redegjoerelse. Vg.no. Retrieved 2022-11-05 In a 2 November reply to

Ingvild Wetrhus Thorsvik Ingvild Wetrhus Thorsvik (born 19 November 1991) is a Norwegian politician. She was elected representative to the Storting from the constituency of Vest-Agder for the period 2021–2025, for the Liberal Party. She is member of the Justice Commit ...

of the Standing Committee on Justice, Mehl claimed that such "double authorization" is required by law; however, on 4 November media revealed that 3 documents from the justice ministry from 2017, 2019 and 2020 say otherwise.https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/0QVJnE/justiskomiteen-om-pst-varsler-uforstaaelig-at-mehl-ikke-griper-inn. Vg.no. Retrieved 2022-11-04

Carl I. Hagen Carl-Ivar Hagen (born 6 May 1944) is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament. He was the leader of the Progress Party from 1978 to 2006, when he stepped down in favour of Siv Jensen. Under hi ...

, a member of the

sent questions to Mehl, asking her how many PST servicemen already have been subjected to "double authorization". As of 5 November, Thorsvik has sent additional questions to Mehl. In December 2022, the opposition parties, together with the government parties, demanded that a position be created for an ombud for

whistleblowing A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

regarding police matters or perhaps even regarding matters of the justice sector; Mehl had already said in May that she would create that position, but she later shelved the idea; in May 2022, the police union in Norway had rejected the one proposed version of the idea. On 15 December, Mehl issued an apology on behalf of the government in relation to the wrongful conviction of Viggo Kristiansen in the

Other

Mehl is previously known as the winner of the first season (2015) of the Norwegian

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

'. She also participated in the third season of ''Kompani Lauritzen'', but did not accept payment for her participation, but instead wished for her remuneration to be donated to charity organisations. She went on to win the season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehl, Emilie Enger 1993 births Living people Centre Party (Norway) politicians Female justice ministers Hedmark politicians Members of the Storting Ministers of Justice of Norway People from Åsnes Reality show winners