Morten Ruud (born 25 February 1950) is a Norwegian

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

Biography

Morton Ruud graduated in 1974 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 ...

, and attended the Norwegian National Defence College in 1985.

Civil service

From 1976, he has spent most of his career in the Ministry of Justice and the Police, except for the years 1977 to 1978, when he was a deputy judge, and the years 1998 to 2001 when he was the

Governor of Svalbard The governor of Svalbard () represents the Norwegian government in exercising its sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago (Spitsbergen). The position reports to the Norwegian Ministry of Justice, but it maintains all Norwegian interests in ...

. In the Ministry of Justice, he was promoted to deputy under-secretary of state in 1990, special adviser on 1 January 1997, and then permanent under-secretary of state on 22 August 1997. He left as permanent under-secretary of state in 2012.

Controversy

While serving in Svalbard, Ruud and his Deputy Governor Rune Bård Hansen expelled three young men from Svalbard, invoking—for the first time in history—a 1976 provision, that allowed for expulsion of convicted felons if deemed liable to commit new criminal acts. Ruud was criticized as "almighty" by the commentator of ''

Verdens Gang (), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is ...

''. ''

Nordlys ''Nordlys'' is a Norwegian newspaper published in Tromsø, covering the region of Troms, and the largest newspaper in Northern Norway. History and profile ''Nordlys'' was founded in 1902 by Alfred Eriksen, who also was its first editor-in-ch ...

'' described the event as "embarrassing and unworthy" bullying.

References

1950 births Living people Norwegian civil servants Norwegian jurists University of Oslo alumni Governors of Svalbard {{Svalbard-bio-stub