Lysglimt Johansen is appealing the prison sentence to the Court of Appeal

– Our client is of the clear opinion that his statements are protected by freedom of expression, and that he cannot be convicted for this, says associate attorney Jonas Berge at Elden Advokatfirma in a press release.

He is defending the Alliance leader together with lawyer Robert Antonsen.

– Partially acquitted and partially convicted

In July, Lysglimt Johansen was sentenced to seven months in prison and fined NOK 10,000 for gross fraud. He was also convicted of hate speech and reckless behavior.

He has denied criminal guilt throughout and believes that the statements must be seen in the context of his role as a politician, and that they are protected by freedom of expression in any case.

– Lysglimt is partly acquitted and partly convicted, and the judgment has been handed down under dissent. Our client has decided to appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeal, says Berge.

Convicted of three counts of hate speech

He was found guilty in the Oslo district court of the Nav fraud where he had provided incorrect income information and was wrongfully paid NOK 665,854 in unemployment benefits.

At the same time, he was acquitted of having committed insurance fraud where he allegedly provided incorrect information to DNB Liv and was paid an unjustified disability insurance of around NOK 93,000.

The indictment also included anti-Semitic or racist statements Johansen shared on Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram and the video service Bitchute from 2017 to 2021. He was convicted of three counts of having presented hate speech in violation of the criminal law, but was acquitted of complicity in hate speech .