Violence committed against law enforcement usually results in the violent person receiving an unconditional sentence to prison. But that is not always the case, according to the Greenland High Court's verdict on a woman handed down on February 25.
The incident took place on the evening of Saturday, June 3, 2023. The woman, who is in her 30s, was attending a party in an apartment in Nuuk. The police arrived at the scene after a report of an argument between other people.
The officer explained in court that the woman started shouting and screaming, and she hit him on the jaw. After he grabbed her wrist to handcuff him, she bit his index finger.
The woman pleaded not guilty. But both the district and high courts found it proven that she had committed the violence, and both times she was sentenced to 30 days in prison.
However, the high court believed that this measure should be made conditional. This is because a longer waiting time for case processing benefits convicted persons. Sermitsiaq has previously focused on the problem of long case processing times.
In this case, a little over two and a half years passed between the crime being committed and the case being concluded in the high court. This was therefore decisive for the sentence being made conditional with a probation period of 1 year.
Sermitsiaq does not normally follow minor violence cases, and therefore we only became aware of the unusual outcome later. This is the reason why some time has passed between the judgment on February 25 and this discussion of the case.
