FLASH
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The son of Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, Marius Borg Hoiby, was arrested on new charges just days before his rape trial was set to begin, as his mother continues to face questions about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Oslo police district said Hoiby was arrested Sunday evening on suspicion of assault, threats with a knife and violating the terms of an arrest warrant.
The arrest came just days before Hoiby, 29, is due to stand trial on 38 charges, including four counts of rape, domestic violence against a former partner and unlawfully filming several women without their knowledge or consent. The trial is expected to begin in Oslo on February 3 and last seven weeks. Hoiby has denied the most serious charges, including sexual assault.
The police had requested a four-week prison sentence on the grounds that it would prevent him from committing the crime again. The Oslo District Court ruled that he could remain in custody until further notice from the prosecution or the court, which is set for March 2.
His arrest comes at a time of great tension for the Norwegian royal family. Over the weekend, Princess Mette-Marit was forced to respond to revelations about her relationship with former sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after her name appeared nearly 1,000 times in newly discovered files released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday.
While the Norwegian public and media had long known that Højby's trial was approaching, Mette-Marit's involvement in the Epstein files surprised the world. In them, Mette-Marit calls Epstein "very charming," "kind-hearted," and "very loving," suggesting that they were in close contact between 2011 and 2014, years after he pleaded guilty to charges involving soliciting minors for prostitution in Florida.
In a statement released on Saturday, Mette-Marit said the files "showed poor judgment", adding: "I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply disgraceful."
Shazia Majid, a journalist and columnist for the Norwegian tabloid VG, said the emails came "at the worst possible time." "It was a huge blow. People are talking about it everywhere and there is a strong sense of anger and frustration," she said.
Support for the royal family has been affected "at least in the short term", he said, adding that "the monarchy is undoubtedly facing a serious crisis".
In the long term, however, he expects the public to "rally around" 88-year-old King Harald V, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon.
The Norwegian parliament will vote on Tuesday on whether to replace the monarchy in a vote held every four years. While it is not expected to pass, it could have stronger support than in previous years. "Could Mette-Marit become queen after this?" asked Aftenposten, a daily newspaper, over the weekend.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gaard Storeh said Monday that he expects “the Norwegians named” in the dossier to “comment on the truth about what happened. The princess herself has said that she showed poor judgment, which I agree with,” the Labor Party leader said. Inclusion in the dossier does not indicate wrongdoing.
Mette-Marit, who suffers from pulmonary fibrosis and recently discovered she may need a lung transplant, married Haakon, the future King of Norway, in 2001. Her son, Hoiby, was born from a previous relationship.
In an email to Epstein in 2012, Mette-Marit asked if it was “inappropriate for a poster of two naked women holding a surfboard to be put up on the wall of a 15-year-old boy’s room.” Earlier, in an email to Epstein, she said the French capital was “good for adultery” and said “Scandinavians are better for men.”
After receiving flowers from him when she was feeling unwell, she sent him a thank-you email with the caption "With love." The records also show that she stayed at Epstein's home in Palm Beach, Florida, for four days in 2013, when he was away.
Mette-Marit expressed her “deep sympathy and solidarity” with Epstein’s victims and said she was responsible “for not checking his records more carefully and for not understanding quickly enough the kind of person he was.” The palace said it had ended written communication with the convicted paedophile in 2014 because it believed he was “trying to use his relationship with the princess as a tool against other people.”
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