"explored" sufficiently. The issue was canceled altogether by Storberget on 20 February. During a press conference regarding the matter, journalists challenged Storberget as to whether he himself had made the decisions on the issue. Facing extreme pressure to resign, he refused to comment on who was responsible and how it could have happened, uttering the word "prosess" (lit: Process) almost forty times during the thirty-minute session. Days later he was briefly hospitalized after experiencing a "Medical episode". Analysts have noted that as Storberget was on vacation at the time, he probably did not know about the proposal or the decision to approve it, which was authored by his state secretaries Astri Aas-Hansen and Hadia Tajik. However the allegations against Aas-Hansen and Tajik have never been confirmed, and other newspapers have reported that the Minister of Justice himself may have authored the decision, leaving the two with the blame when the storm came. Allegations of coercion A lawyer for victims of the Utøya massacre, Mette Yvonne Larsen, was telephoned by Storberget on 19 August 2011, and allegedly the minister asked her to reduce her criticism (after she publicly criticized some of actions by police during and after the massacre, and after having asked, on behalf of her clients, why police did not arrive earlier to the scene of the massacre, and asked why there was no helicopter [belonging to the Government] on standby). Storberget said that he could not remember (having called the lawyer and asking her to soften her criticism (dempe kritikken). Resignation Facing mounting pressure in the aftermath of the 2011 Norway attacks over the state of the police and security, Storberget announced his resignation. He declared that six years as justice minister was sufficient and that he wished to focus his attention on remaining in parliament and his family. He was replaced by defense minister Grete Faremo. Bibliography Storberget, Knut: Miscellaneous articles Storberget, Knut: Legal control of alcohol policy decisions, Oslo 1993 Storberget, Knut: Legal and alcohol policy, Oslo 1995 Storberget, Knut: "The bear sleeps", Aschehoug Oslo 2007 References External links 1964 births Living people People from Elverum Members of the Storting Government ministers of Norway Labour Party (Norway) politicians Hedmark politicians University of Oslo alumni 20th-century Norwegian lawyers Norwegian temperance activists 21st-century Norwegian politicians Ministers of Justice of Norway