Retention of DNA profile
Supreme Court judgment 26 June 2019, HR-2019-1226-A, (case no. 19-014740SIV-HRET), civil case, appeal against judgment.
A (Counsel John Christian Elden) v. The State represented by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Counsel Knut-Fredrik Haug-Hustad)
Justices: Webster, Matheson, Bergsjø, Arntzen, Lindsetmo
The Office of the Public Prosecutor had decided to retain the DNA profile of a man who had been sentenced to one year and six months of imprisonment for tax fraud, in the DNA identity register, see section 12 subsection 2 (1) of the Police Databases Act. After a thorough review of case law from the European Court of Human Rights and of the legislative process, and after an overall assessment of the conflicting considerations, the Supreme Court concluded that the decision was valid, as the retention was not a disproportionate measure under Article 8 no. 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It was emphasised that he had been convicted of a serious offence and that the right to retention is limited in a sufficiently precise manner. It was also mentioned that the Norwegian rules allow deletion after an individual assessment, and that detailed provisions on, among other things, access, blocking, transparency and storage give the necessary privacy guarantees. Dissenting votes 4-1.