A repeatedly convicted Afghan migrant who had once been ordered expelled from Norway has been charged with murdering his Norwegian girlfriend, nine days after police opened another violence case against him involving the same woman.
Maren Sømme, 30, was found catastrophically injured inside the couple’s home in Nærbø, south of Stavanger, on Sunday, 26 July. Emergency vehicles filled the residential street, and an air ambulance carried her to Stavanger University Hospital. She died the next afternoon. Her boyfriend, 34-year-old Nawid Bayan, was arrested and charged with murder.
Police have not revealed the cause of death or her injuries. Graphic—and indeed disturbing—claims, however, quickly swept across social media, alleging knife wounds and that several fingers and parts of her breasts had been severed.
Defence lawyer Arvid Sjødin rejected those, stating that there was ‘never any violence’. According to his account, Sømme suddenly stopped breathing, and bruises seen days earlier came from a fall down stairs. Sjødin has threatened complaints against people spreading the claims.
The suspect’s history, however, suggests otherwise. Bayan came to Norway from Afghanistan as a teenager in 2005. By the age of 17, he had already begun building a criminal record marked by violence, threats and weapons. In 2008 he was convicted after threatening a security guard and firing a gas pistol during a school event. Later that year, he was convicted again for repeatedly punching and kicking another student in the head.
After two trials ending with acquittals in 2009 and 2014, a district court sentenced him in 2017 to one year and eight months for abusing his then-wife. The Court of Appeal acquitted him in 2018 after police failed to preserve injury photographs properly and conflicting testimony created reasonable doubt. The judges nevertheless found that he had subjected the woman to degrading treatment, including dragging her by the hair.
Years of violence met its consequences in 2019, when Bayan was convicted of 14 offences. The court found that he repeatedly struck a girlfriend, stubbed a cigarette into the corner of her mouth, beat her with knuckle-dusters, spat at her and controlled whom she could contact. She received a violence alarm. The judgment also covered threats, criminal damage, theft, drink-driving, breaching a restraining order and unlawfully carrying knives and an axe.
Another former girlfriend reported him in December 2023, providing photographs, video and medical records. Police closed the case four days later. ‘The next victim will not come out alive,’ she says she warned them.
Immigration authorities ordered Bayan to be expelled in 2021 after the conviction, but Norway soon suspended forced returns to Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover. Despite the suspension ending in 2022, the suspect remained. UDI now says he had lawful residence and no active expulsion order when Sømme died, but will not disclose when, why or under which legal provision the decision was reversed.
Jon Helgheim, chairman of parliament’s Justice Committee and member of the right-wing, anti-immigration Progress Party, accused the government of ‘putting innocent Norwegians’ lives at risk’ to protect dangerous criminal migrants. He called the expulsion regime ‘absurd’, arguing that authorities place offenders’ safety above that of ordinary citizens.
‘Immigration authorities ordered Bayan to be expelled in 2021 after the conviction’
For one last time, Norwegian authorities turned away from clear warning signs, until there were no warnings left and a predictable, potentially avoidable tragedy had happened. Days before her death, Sømme sought medical help with bruising. Police opened a violence case on 17 July, arrested Bayan the next day, interviewed them both and released him because the conditions for detention were judged unmet. The investigation was still open when she was found dying in their home nine days later.
Bayan remains in custody and denies criminal responsibility. He has appealed his detention to the Supreme Court and is due to be questioned again on Friday, 7 August.
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