Carsten Thomassen hearing opens

The court hearing into the death of Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen opened last week. Thomassen died of injuries he received during an attack at Serena hotel in Kabul in January. Opening the hearing Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere admitted the Foreign Office did not have any emergency plans for the type of attack,

Stoere said during Thursday’s open hearing in Parliament (Stortinget) that the Department of Foreign Affairs (UD) was not prepared for a situation in which the leaders of the emergency staff themselves came under attack. At the same time Stoere rejected speculations that a difference had been made in the treatment of journalist Carsten Thomassen and the injured UD staff member Bjoern Svenungsen. link

Critics of the Norwegian government have questioned why Thomassen was not taken to hospital at the same time as Svennungsen. Thomassen was taken “quite a while later”.