Marius Borg Høiby has been held in pretrial detention since early February, arrested for the fourth time hours before a trial that would stretch on for seven weeks. On June 15th, the Oslo District Court convicted him and sentenced him to four years in prison, on charges that included two counts of rape. His legal team appealed the sentence, and while the case awaits a ruling from the Court of Appeal, they've been pursuing every legal avenue to let him serve that pretrial detention at home instead. Home, in this case, means Skaugum, the royal estate that serves as the official residence for Norway's heirs.
© Ian GavanThis Monday, July 13th, the Oslo District Court granted the princess's son his release: he'll spend the next four weeks under house arrest.
Borg will be allowed to serve the next four weeks of pretrial detention at home under electronic monitoring. "The Prosecutor's Office has appealed the decision and is asking that the sentence be stayed, meaning they believe Høiby should remain in custody until the Court of Appeal has reviewed the case," reports the public broadcaster NRK, referring to the appeal filed over the four-year sentence handed down last June.
Borg's case isn't expected to be finalized until 2027, given the appeal now underway.
Prosecutors believe there's a risk Borg could commit new offenses. They argue he still poses a threat to the woman known publicly only as the "Frogner woman," and that releasing him isn't justified. Defense attorneys, for their part, believe the risk of reoffending has gone down. Høiby's defense attorney, Petar Sekulic, argued, according to Aftenposten, that an ankle monitor would reduce that risk, provided Høiby takes part in a program called Risk. Run by police, the program will track both Høiby and the Frogner woman to lower the odds that he commits further offenses against her.
"Høiby is quite pleased with this. He asked to be released, and he's very happy with the outcome," Sekulic said.
© ANE HEMBorg spoke about his risk of reoffending and his relationship with the Frogner woman. "I think the risk of reoffending is essentially nonexistent. Both the Frogner woman and I have moved on." As reported by NRK, Borg wore a white polo shirt and had a noticeable tan. "It's not that I agree with the whole verdict, it's that I don't want any more contact with her. I don't want to go through another trial," he said.
When the judge asked what he'd do if the Frogner woman tried to reestablish contact once he's released, he answered: "If she ever shows up at my door, I'll have to call the police. I don't want any contact with her."
Had the Office of the Attorney General not requested an extension of his detention before this Monday, July 13, the princess's son would have been automatically released once his pretrial detention expired. Instead, Sturla Henriksbø, the prosecutor and lead voice for the public case, argued that the risk of reoffending hadn't been reduced enough to justify releasing Marius Borg Høiby.
© LISE ASERUDAfter Oslo's main prison was temporarily shut down, Borg was transferred to Ila, a high-security facility known for housing the country's most dangerous inmates. According to the reasons Borg himself cited when requesting release, he'd been kept in isolation by his own choice and for security reasons. That lack of human contact, he claimed, had led to sleep and eating problems, memory issues, and social withdrawal.
Borg also cited a seriously ill family member as one of the reasons for early release. This was a clear reference to his mother, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, who underwent a lung transplant over the past year.
How a domestic dispute snowballed into the criminal case that's rocked the Norwegian monarchy
© HAKON MOSVOLD LARSENBorg's case has become one of the most sensitive legal battles in the Norwegian royal house. It started in August 2024, when what was initially treated as a domestic dispute turned into an assault complaint involving someone close to him, and became the first of four consecutive arrests. As the investigation progressed, former partners of Borg began to come forward, widening the scope of the case.
The turning point came when investigators got access to Borg's cell phone, pulling from it a long list of potential offenses, finding signs of rape, abuse within a relationship, drug trafficking, reckless driving, and more. While none could be proved in court, they helped paint a troubling and public pattern of behavior. It later came out that police had been warning him about the company he kept for some time, and that, according to multiple accounts and audio recordings obtained by Norwegian media, Borg had been acting with a sense of impunity.
As the investigation deepened, the case went from an isolated incident to a matter of major institutional weight. The proceedings led to a seven-week trial, dozens of charges, and hundreds of messages pulled from his phone, putting the Norwegian royal house at the center of unprecedented media scrutiny. Marius Borg and his legal team, made up of some of the country's top attorneys, have taken the case to Norway's Court of Appeal in hopes of reducing the four-year sentence he received over the two rape convictions and the domestic assault charges.
© LISE ASERUD
