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

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Un ...

, former

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

, and present

Children's ombudsman A children's ombudsman, children's commissioner, youth commissioner, child advocate, children's commission, youth ombudsman or equivalent body is a public authority in various countries charged with the protection and promotion of the rights of chil ...

. Together with

Svein Holden Svein Holden (born 23 August 1973) is a Norwegian lawyer having prosecuted several major criminal cases in Norway. Together with prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh Holden prosecuted terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik in the 2012 trial following the ...

she prosecuted terror suspect

Anders Behring Breivik Fjotolf Hansen (born 13 February 1979), better known by his birth name Anders Behring Breivik () and by his pseudonym Andrew Berwick, is a Norwegian far-right domestic terrorist, known for committing the 2011 Norway attacks on 22 July 2011. On ...

in the 2012 trial following the

2011 Norway attacks The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July ( no, 22. juli) or as 22/7, were two domestic terrorist attacks by neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF) ...

Early life and career

Engh is educated

Candidate of Law Candidate of Law (Latin: ''candidatus/candidata juris/iuris'') is both a graduate law degree awarded to law students in the Nordic region as well as an academic status designation for advanced Law School students in German-speaking countries. N ...

. 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 rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Upon return to Norway her first job was at

Drammen District Court Drammen District Court is a district court located in Drammen, Norway. It covers the municipalities of Drammen, Hurum, Lier, Røyken, Sande and Svelvik Svelvik is a town in Drammen municipality, Viken county. It is also a former municipa ...

later

Oslo District Court Oslo District Court ( no, Oslo tingrett) is a district court located in Oslo, Norway. This court is based at the Oslo Courthouse in the city of Oslo. The court serves the entire city of Oslo and the court is subordinate to the Borgarting Court o ...

and

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greater Asker) in Viken count ...

and

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electora ...

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 Østfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in southeastern Norway. It borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other sid ...

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 June 27, 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.

Personal life

Inga Bejer Engh is married and has two young boys. The youngest was born in 2009 and was very

premature Premature may refer to: * ''Premature'' (2014 film), an American comedy film * ''Premature'' (2019 film), an American romantic drama film * '' PREMature'', a 2015 British television drama miniseries See also * Premature aging, of an organism * ...

but has sustained no lasting medical problems. Her decision to become a lawyer was made in the 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