Tor-Aksel Busch

Tor-Aksel Busch (born 17 March 1950) is a Norwegian jurist. He served as Director of Public Prosecutions from 1997 to 2019.

Tor-Aksel Busch
Born	(1950-03-17) 17 March 1950 Oslo, Norway
Occupation	jurist and civil servant
Awards	Norwegian Police Cross of Honour (2019)

Career

Busch was born in Oslo, and graduated as cand.jur. from the University of Oslo in 1974. From 1981 to 1987 he was a public prosecutor in Eidsivating, and from 1981 to 1987 assisting Director of Public Prosecutions. In 1997 he was appointed as Norwegian Director of Public Prosecutions, succeeding Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn.[1][2] Busch retired on 31 October 2019. During his career he procecuted 138 cases for the Supreme Court.[3]

His last week as Director of Public Prosecutions was dominated by starting cleanup after it was revealed that a years-long unlawful practice by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration had effected thousands of clients, including a number of fraud cases based on wrong premises.[3]

Allegations of Anti-Semitism

In 2019, Busch was accused of protecting and normalizing anti-semitism in Norway, when — despite a Norwegian law that outlaws hate speech[4] — he ruled that the phrase "fuck Jews" was not hate speech and not illegal[5][6].

Awards

Bush was awarded the Norwegian Police Cross of Honour in 2019.[7] He was also awarded Rettssikkerhetsprisen in 2019.[8]

References

1. Bolstad, Erik (ed.). "Tor-Aksel Busch". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Norsk nettleksikon. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
2. Hætta, Odd Mathis (2008). "Busch, Tor-Aksel". In Åmås, Knut Olav (ed.). Hvem er hvem? (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aschehoug. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-82-03-23561-0.
3. Kolsrud, Kjetil (31 October 2019). "Busch: – Min vakt er over". rett24.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 1 November 2019.
4. "Almindelig borgerlig Straffelov (Straffeloven) - 13de Kapitel. Forbrydelser mod den almindelige Orden og Fred.1 - Lovdata". lovdata.no. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
5. Politics (2019-03-14). "To Understand The American Left's Anti-Semitism, Look To Europe". The Federalist. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
6. Skaug, Christian (2019-03-10). "– «Fuck jøder» kan tolkes som kritikk av Israel". Document (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2019-05-24.
7. "Riksadvokat Tor-Aksel Busch mottar politiets høyeste utmerkelse". politiet.no (in Norwegian). 24 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
8. "Rettssikkerhetsprisen til Tor-Aksel Busch". rett24.no (in Norwegian). 4 September 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.

Legal offices
Preceded by Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn	Norwegian Director of Public Prosecutions 1997–2019	Succeeded by Jørn Sigurd Maurud