According to VG’s information, Zaniar Matapour (42) was stopped in connection with a SIAN demonstration this spring – together with the central Islamist Arfan Bhatti.
Just updated
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The accused after the Oslo shooting was summoned to a conversation of concern after the burning of the Koran earlier in May.
According to VG’s information, Matapour had then been stopped by the police in connection with a SIAN demonstration at Stovner in Oslo in April.
Matapour then sat in a car with the central Islamist Arfan Bhatti (44), according to VG’s information.
Elden has been appointed to defend Matapour. He has also represented Bhatti for several years.
– I have understood it so that the episode PST now refers to that made them contact the accused in May, was that he participated in a demonstration against SIAN burning the Koran on a public street, Matapour’s defender John Christian Elden writes in an SMS to VG.
VG is informed that Matapour was reported for having been in possession of a knife in connection with the SIAN demonstration.
– I do not know who he was then with, we have not yet received any case documents from when Bhatti was stopped in the same demonstration, Elden writes in the SMS.
VG’s information: Contact in 2015
Arfan Bhatti has been convicted several times, including for violence.
He has also been acquitted in court for several charges, including terrorist planning.
Bhatti has been one of the leaders in the controversial group The Prophet’s Ummah. You can read more about Bhatti her.
PST has had knowledge of Matapour since 2015, after concerns about radicalization and that he was part of an extremely Islamist contact network in Norway.
According to VG’s information, the Police Security Service (PST) and the Oslo police are aware that there was contact between Matapour and Bhatti back in 2015.
– I am not aware of it, but have not heard of any illegal contact between them at any time, or that Bhatti is said to have broken the law in the same periods, Elden writes in an SMS to VG.
VG has tried to get in touch with Bhatti without success.
–PST: No comment
Neither the Oslo Police District nor PST want to comment on the information.
In an SMS, police lawyer Børge Enoksen in the Oslo police writes the following:
– The accused’s background and acquaintances are an important part of the investigation, but at present we do not comment on details about this.
Two people were killed and 21 injured in the shooting outside the bars Per at Hjørnet and London in Oslo last night. Matapour has not yet been questioned about the motive, and it is still unknown how he will respond to the accusation.
The 42-year-old who has been arrested has previously been convicted of aggravated assault and possession of drugs.
Matapour has also been investigated for other more serious matters, including attempted murder, but these matters have been dropped.
–PST: Not close with measures
When PST conducted a conversation with Matapour after the SIAN demonstration, it was considered that the 42-year-old had no intention of violence.
– We have not considered him as one of those we are most worried about, in other words that we have not been close with measures around him, PST chief Roger Berg told VG on Saturday.
PST also states that they conducted conversations with the accused “in connection with the fact that he had shown interest in markings and statements that are perceived as a violation of Islam”.
– We had a conversation with him, where we assessed the intention of violence. In that sense, it can be said in retrospect that we may have considered mistakes, Berg said.
PST did not want to specify which networks Matapour is allegedly connected to, but the PST chief said on Saturday that Matapour has sympathized with ISIL.
ISIL is the terrorist group also known as IS, which has operated in Syria and Iraq, among other places.
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