Marius Borg No Longer Wants His House Arrest Extended: Queen Mette-Marit's Son Goes Before an Oslo Court on Monday With a Job Offer in Hand

On Monday, at 9:15 in the morning, Oslo District Court will decide whether the son of Norway's queen keeps counting the days with an electronic monitor on his ankle. Marius Borg is 29, has been under house arrest on the royal estate of Skaugum since July, and after accepting two extensions in a row, he now says: enough.

Prosecutor Oda Karterud wants four more weeks. Her argument is short: there's still a risk Borg will reoffend. The defense claims the opposite. "In our view, there are no grounds for him to remain in custody," lawyer Alexander Greker told the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.

A reminder of who we're talking about. Police first arrested him in August 2024 in Oslo. A first-instance verdict followed: four years in prison for around thirty criminal offenses. He has been in custody since February, and the defense's appeal doesn't reach the Court of Appeal until February 9, when the lawyers will present new testimony. In the meantime Norway changed the crown, so his mother is now queen, and he left house arrest to attend King Harald V's funeral on September 9.

"The burden is much greater than what has come out in public," Greker says. And what is that burden? Borg can't go shopping, see friends or work. Replacing the ankle monitor with a security alarm, which would give him back some of his freedom, still hasn't happened.

The Balkans know well the scene where a good surname helps a convicted person wait for justice at home. The difference in Oslo is that all of this is argued in public, with a set time for the hearing and a prosecutor asking out loud for the measure to be extended. How many convicted people in any country wait for their appeal on a royal estate rather than in a cell?

On Monday the defense will call a witness, and Borg himself wants to explain before the judge how custody affects him. He'll also put a concrete job offer on the table, with which he claims he would start rebuilding his life. Whatever the court decides, the February date stands. Norway's new queen begins her chapter of history with an old case in her own court.