Norway: Woman abducted

Norway: Woman abducted

A Norwegian-Pakistani 26 year old woman was kidnapped last week from Høvik (Bærum) on her way to work in Oslo. A woman who drove by told police she saw the woman being forced into a car.

The woman's brother is a well-known NRK journalist. He was aboard this week, but came back to Norway when he heard what happened.

The woman lived by her parents in the Haslum (Bærum) suburb of Oslo and every day traveled to her workplace in Oslo. She had a good income, but officially no boyfriend. However, the police discovered after her abduction that she did have a secret boyfriend. Her parents didn't know about him, but her older sister and several others did know about the relationship. The boyfriend is said to have belonged to a closed community, to which the woman also had ties. The boyfriend was thoroughly interrogated, but could not help the police find the woman.

As late as January the couple went on vacation to the south, all kept secret from the girl's parents.

At 6:44AM Wednesday morning the woman rang the police and told them she was in the trunk of a car and had just been kidnapped on her way to the bus station. She said her abductor, whom she described as a bald Norwegian in his late 20s, told her he was being paid to do it for a certain Norwegian-Pakistani 28 year old taxi driver. The police had one more talk with her, and traced her to Dikemark (Asker, suburb of Oslo). The police set up roadblocks, but lost the phone's signal at about 9:30. For many hours the police checked all cars on several roads in the area.

The 28 year old was arrested in Sandvika (Bærum) Wednesday evening. Police found a shopping list in his home which had tape, handcuffs and a hood on it. He told police that this was to be used for sex-games with a prostitute.

The suspect's brother was also interrogated and told the police that the 16,000 kroner cash found in the suspect's apartment were to be used to pay for plane tickets for the family. The tickets were ordered before the woman was kidnapped, but haven't been paid for yet.

On Saturday the police arranged a meeting between the suspect and a family representative. According to the suspect's lawyer, the representative asked the suspect to tell everything he knew, but he had nothing more to tell. The abducted woman had told the police the suspect was interested in starting a relationship with her and had pestered her about it. He denies guilt in the case. The suspect had been shot in Haugerud in 2006 because he was head over heels in love with another young woman.

After the 26 year old left her job in Oslo City last summer, the 28 year old tried to run her over in a car, according ot the woman's girlfriend. The suspect claims that the abducted woman owed him money.

A girlfriend of the abducted woman told the police that the woman had planned to run away from home and get herself a new identity, but didn't know whether she dared go through with it. She also told them that the 26 year old's parents tried to convince her to marry a man in Pakistan, and that she didn't want to. The woman's sister, on the other, told police that her sister was not being pressured to marry.

The parents have been on vacation in Pakistan since mid-January. The sister says the parents wanted to bring with them a picture of a possible partner for their daughter.

The police did not want to comment on the various reports, and say the investigation is ongoing. There have been no sign of the woman since her disappearance.

Sources: Dagbladet 1, 2, 3; VG; TV2 Nyhetene (Norwegian)