When the surname is royal, you expect the sentence to be different - but the Norwegian court showed today that, at least sometimes, justice doesn't look at the family tree. Marius Borg, the 29-year-old son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, has been sentenced to four years in prison. The verdict was read by judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad on Monday, June 15, 2026, in courtroom 250 of the Palace of Justice in Oslo - a document of as many as 128 pages.

Of four rape charges, Borg was convicted on two, and acquitted on the other two and of all claims for damages. The prosecution sought a sentence of over seven years and seven months, while the defence proposed just a year and a half. He maintained to the end that he was innocent of the acts he was convicted of. Both the prosecution and the defence have the right to appeal within two weeks - which means the last word has not yet been said.

The details of the verdict are cold and concrete. In one case, the court found that the victim was asleep: „Her eyes were closed, she stayed in the same position for some time and did not react to touch or stimulation." In another case, the court found reasonable doubt and acquitted him on that count. Borg remains in custody - the court had previously assessed that there was a risk he would reoffend.

As a final detail that a Balkan reader will recognise at once: the court decided that the worsening health of his mother, who is awaiting a lung transplant, is not a reason for his release. The royal court did not intervene, or at least didn't succeed. Whether, here, with a surname like that and connections like those, the case would even reach a courtroom - that's a question everyone answers for themselves.