Norway’s appeal court has rejected Marius Borg Høiby’s bid to leave custody before next Monday’s verdict in his rape trial, keeping the 29-year-old behind bars at a moment when his lawyers had argued his mother’s serious illness should count in his favor.
The ruling in Oslo overturned a lower court decision on Monday that had ordered his release pending the verdict on 40 criminal charges. Høiby is facing prosecutors’ demand for seven years and seven months in prison, and he denies the most serious allegations.
The timing matters because this is the final stretch of a six-week trial that has placed the royal family under an unflattering glare. The case began after Høiby was first arrested at a woman’s flat in Frogner in Oslo in August 2024, and he has been in custody since the start of February after new allegations of assault and violating a restraining order kept the pressure on the court to decide whether he should remain detained.
Høiby told the district court that “Sitting inside when I know Mum is so sick is unbearable,” referring to Princess Mette-Marit, 52, who has pulmonary fibrosis and was placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant last week after her condition had declined significantly in recent months. His lawyer, Ellen Holager Andenæs, said the defense was “very, very disappointed” and added that one can imagine how he feels.
That plea did not carry the day. The district court said the risk of re-offending was marginal and that keeping him in jail would be disproportionately intrusive, but the appeal court said on Wednesday that the risk was virtually unchanged since its previous decision on 13 May and pointed to an obvious risk that he would have further contact with the Frogner woman.
The case now moves to its next and most consequential moment: a verdict on 40 criminal offences next Monday, with judges weighing four counts of rape as well as charges of violence, threats and abusive behaviour within a relationship. Høiby admits some lesser charges, including drug possession and traffic offences, but denies the rape allegations, which involve women who were either asleep or incapacitated after consensual sex. One of the four counts involves intercourse; the other three include alleged sexual assault.
He was born before Princess Mette-Marit married Prince Haakon, but was brought up within the royal household despite not being a member of the royal family. The crown prince and princess visited him in Oslo prison last Sunday, a reminder that even as the court process moves toward a verdict, the personal cost of the case remains close to the center of it.
