Son of Norway’s crown princess arrested on new charges before start of rape trial | Norway

The son of Norway’s crown princess, Marius Borg Høiby, has been arrested on new charges just days before the start of his rape trial, as his mother continues to face questions over her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The Oslo police district said Høiby had been arrested on Sunday evening on suspicion of assault, making threats with a knife and violating a restraining order.

The arrest came days before Høiby, 29, stands trial on charges of 38 offences including four counts of rape, the domestic abuse of a former partner and the illegal filming of a number of women without their knowledge or consent.

The trial is expected to start in Oslo on Tuesday and take place over seven weeks. Høiby has denied the most serious charges, including those of sexual abuse.

Police have requested four weeks of imprisonment for Høiby on the grounds of preventing him from reoffending. Oslo district court ruled that he could be remanded in custody until otherwise decided by the prosecuting authority or court until 2 March.

Andreas Kruszewski, a police prosecutor, said: “The Oslo police district can confirm that Marius Borg Høiby was arrested on Sunday evening and charged with bodily harm, making threats involving a knife, and breach of a restraining order.

Høiby’s arrest comes at a moment of great tension for the Norwegian royal family.

Over the weekend the crown princess, Mette-Marit, was forced to respond to revelations about her relationship with the late child sex offender Epstein after her name appeared nearly 1,000 times in the newly unsealed files released by the US justice department on Friday.

While the Norwegian public and media have known for a long time that Høiby’s trial was coming, Mette-Marit’s inclusion in the Epstein files has taken people by surprise.

In them, Mette-Marit calls Epstein “very charming”, “soft-hearted” and “such a sweetheart”, appearing to suggest they were in close contact between 2011 and 2014, years after he pleaded guilty to charges that included soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Mette-Marit said the files “showed poor judgment”, adding: “I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing.”

Shazia Majid, a journalist and columnist for the Norwegian tabloid VG, said the emails had come “at the “worst possible time”. “It has been a hard blow. People are talking about it everywhere, and there is a strong sense of anger and disappointment,” she said.

Support for the royal family had been impacted “at least in the short term”, said Majid, adding: “The monarchy is undoubtedly facing a serious crisis.” Long term, however, she expects the public to “rally around” King Harald V, 88, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon.

The Norwegian parliament was due on Tuesday to vote on whether to replace the monarchy in a ballot that is held once every four years. While it is not expected to succeed, it may have stronger support than previous years. “Can Mette-Marit be queen after this?” questioned Aftenposten, a daily newspaper, at the weekend.

Craig Aaen-Stockdale, leader of the organisation Norway as a republic, said the Epstein emails had “knocked a lot of people’s confidence in the monarchy,” including among former supporters. “The popularity of the monarchy has crashed among the general population. Everybody is pretty angry,” he said.

The Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said on Monday he expected “the Norwegians mentioned” in the files to “comment on the truth about what happened”.

“The crown princess herself has stated that she has shown poor judgment, which I agree with,” said the Labour leader.

Inclusion in the files does not imply wrongdoing.

Mette-Marit, who has pulmonary fibrosis and recently revealed that she is likely to need a lung transplant, married Haakon, the future king of Norway, in 2001. Her son, Høiby, was born from a previous relationship.

In one email to Epstein in 2012, Mette-Marit asked Epstein if it was “inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old sons wallpaper”. Soon before, she emailed Epstein about him being on a “wife hunt” in Paris in which she said the French capital was “good for adultery” and said that “Scandis (are) better wife material”.

After receiving flowers from him when she was feeling unwell, she sent him a thank you email signed, “Love, Mm.” The files also indicate that she stayed at Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, Florida, for four days in 2013 when he was away.

The files show that she had googled Epstein in 2011 and told him “it didn’t look too good” with a smiling face emoji.

Mette-Marit has expressed her “deep sympathy and solidarity” with Epstein’s victims and said that she was responsible “for not having checked Epstein’s background more closely and not understanding quickly enough what kind of person he was”.

The palace said Mette-Marit had ended written contact with Epstein in 2014 as she felt he was “trying to use his relationship with the crown princess as leverage with other people”.

Among other Norwegians included in the latest Epstein files release is the former Labour prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland. Between 2013 and 2014, while Jagland was secretary general of the Council of Europe and chair of the Nobel committee, he talked about a potential family visit to Epstein’s island. He has since said the plan “never came to fruition”.

In 2012, he wrote in an email to Epstein that he had just been to Tirana, the capital of Albania, where he said there were “extraordinary girls”. He has since said that some of his emails have “embarrassing jargon that can be misunderstood”.