Soccer player Hamse Ali (25) claimed he was beaten up by six white racists in a park in Bergen. He has now been charged with making up the whole story.

– The police opened a case against Ali in November. He was then confronted with discrepancies between his statement and the police’s database and was given the status of being charged,” writes communications adviser Gry Halseth in the Western Police District to NRK.

In an email, the Public Prosecutor’s Office informs that the following decisions have been made:

The public prosecutor has brought charges against Hamse Ali for false statement (section 221 of the Criminal Code) in connection with the investigation of grievous bodily harm, where Ali testified as the victim in September last year.

The police opened a case against Ali in November. He was then confronted with discrepancies between his statement and the police’s data basis and was given the status of a defendant.

This week, the public prosecutors in Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane brought charges in the case. At the same time, the case of grievous bodily harm has been dropped as a non-criminal offence.

Prosecuting officer Per Øyvind Valland is following up the case.

– What is it that makes you now prosecute?

– The starting point was this assault causing grievous bodily harm in Nygårdsparken in September last year. It was investigated. What happened during the investigation into grievous bodily harm and racially motivated violence was that discrepancies arose between what the police found out and what the victim in this bodily harm case explained,” Valland tells Document, adding:

“The investigations we built on, and which we use for this indictment, are interviews with witnesses, activity on his mobile phone, and there are base stations and location data from an electric scooter supplier. Based on an overall picture of the evidence, the police conclude that we can disregard his statement about this incident in Nygårdsparken. One consequence of this is a charge of perjury.

– What is the main hypothesis for what actually has happened?

– The police have a main hypothesis about what could alternatively have caused these injuries, to put it a bit bluntly, but we will litigate the case in court, and not in the media. We don’t want to go into evidence, because then the press will prejudge the case,” he says.