A Norwegian man who’s been in and out of prison most of his life was ordered held in ongoing isolation on Tuesday, after being arrested and charged in the recent murder of another well-known bank robber, Metkel Betew. “Given the gravity of the case and its character,” read the ruling from the Oslo County Court, “it’s most probable that the defendant will try to send messages to others involved to destroy evidence.”
The ruling was directed at defendant Stig Millehaugen, who was on leave from prison when Betew was found murdered in a forested area of Oslo at the beginning of the Easter holidays. Millehaugen, who will turn 56 on May 8, was arrested on Easter Sunday and charged with either murdering Betew or being an accomplice to his murder.
He’s been held in isolation ever since and that’s now been extended. He’d already been ordered held in custody for at least four weeks while police continue to investigate.
Millehaugen is best known for the robberies of several post offices in the summer of 1992, after he’d escaped from prison on another conviction. He was sentenced to 17 years in jail in 1993 also for having shot and killed a prison guard while held in Sarpsborg prison. In October 2000 he disappeared while out on parole but was recaptured. In 2012 he was sentenced to another 21 years in prison, and possibly for life, after being convicted of killing a gang leader. He escaped from prison again in 2022 but was captured a week later.
Prosecutors now suspect Millehaugen was hired to kill Betew, who’d been involved in Norway’s largest robbery of a NOKAS money courier center in Stavanger, the cash from which was never recovered. Millehaugen, who’s been working on a book about life in prison, has denied having anything to do with Betew’s murder. State broadcaster NRK reported that Betew, meanwhile, was among those Millehaugen had interviewed for the book.
NewsinEnglish.no staff