“Three Men Charged with Terrorism: Allegedly Met at Popular Oslo Restaurant before Attack”

Three weeks before the terror attack in Oslo last year, three men are said to have met at this restaurant in the capital. Now everyone is charged with terrorism.

In the afternoon of Sunday 5 June last year the popular grill restaurant “Alibaba” has kept its doors open for a few hours. At around 5 p.m., three men who are all known to the police arrived, VG is told:

Zaniar Matapour (43). Arfan Bhatti (45). And a childhood friend (36) of Bhatti.

Oslo was preparing for summer and holidays, but three weeks after this restaurant visit, it crashed.

Night to 25 June Matapour shot around in the center. Two people were killed. Several others injured.

20 hours after the attack, the police have found a man they suspect of having a role in the terrorist attack: Bhatti’s 36-year-old childhood friend.

At 21.15 he was stopped by the police and asked to join the witness interview.

The childhood friend has previously been convicted of possessing the same type of machine gun, an MP-40, that Matapour used during the attack. The two are in the circle of each other.

In the police interview, the childhood friend explained that he met Matapour a couple of years earlier through friends. But he does not want to name these friends, according to VG’s information.

The childhood friend further explained that he had not met Matapour since the restaurant visit a few weeks earlier – but he did not mention Bhatti in this context.

However, the police believe that traffic data links all three men to the area around the grill restaurant, according to VG’s information.

Two days after this meeting, Bhatti left for Pakistan. He has since been charged with terrorism and internationally wanted. Bhatti denies criminal guilt and refuses to be returned to Norway in handcuffs.

Politiet: Taus om pengeuttak

24 June last year, the day before the terrorist attack, Matapour is said to have called his childhood friend to borrow money, VG is informed. He had to wait until the coming week, the childhood friend explained that he informed Matapour about this.

Men:

• At 22.40 and 22.41 that evening, just over two or three hours before the terrorist attack, the childhood friend went to the Nordea Kaldbakken ATM in Oslo, according to the police.
• There he withdrew a total of NOK 19,500, bank statements that the police have collected show.
• The police have also secured surveillance video from the ATM which shows that it is Bhatti’s childhood friend who is withdrawing the money, VG is informed.

In the witness interview after the attack, Bhatti’s childhood friend gave a detailed explanation of his movements from Friday 24 June to Saturday 25 June last year – but he did not mention the withdrawal, according to the police.

When the police searched Matapour after the attack, they found NOK 8,000 in 500 notes on him, VG is informed.

Phones and SIM cards

The police also found an Alcatel mobile phone when they arrested Matapour, according to VG’s information.

• The mobile did not have a SIM card in it. However, two SIM cards were taped to the inside of the cover.
• The police’s review of the SIM cards shows that one card was empty, while the other contained four telephone numbers.
• Two of the numbers are linked to Bhatti, one number is linked to Bhatti’s childhood friend and one number is linked to another convicted man.
• The police believe that these four contacts were central to terrorist accused Zaniar Matapour, also after the attack.

The police also believe that Matapour may have had contact with Bhatti and his childhood friend on the encrypted communication platform Telegram, VG is informed.

– I have no comments on this case, says Matapour’s defender, lawyer Marius Dietrichson, to VG.

Wrote about interrogation in terror chat

VG has previously revealed that an agent commissioned by the Norwegian Intelligence Service chatted with a wanted Norwegian Islamist in Bhatti’s network six days before the terror attack. After the attack, the agent chats directly with what the police believe is Bhatti, and there he says that he received help from “one other brother».

The police believe that «the other brother» mentioned in the chat, could be the childhood friend.

Already in the first conversation after the attack, Bhatti is said to be aware that his childhood friend has been questioned by the police for around three hours. This is how Bhatti describes what the police believe to be his childhood friend:

«Most trustworthy brother. Known since birth. On of the best. Has pass the test before also. And now this big goal. So no doubt in him.»

Denies criminal liability

The police believe that Bhatti’s childhood friend contributed to the terrorist attack.

– I am not going to comment on the police’s interpretations and assessments of any individual reports now, especially because there are many questions related to the origin, credibility, legality of the reports and because we expect the case against him to be dropped, says the childhood friends’ defender, lawyer Øyvind Bratlien, to VG.

– All the other circumstances VG mentions have natural causes, which have nothing to do with the shooting. My client has always denied criminal guilt, continues the defense attorney.

Bhatti’s defender, John Christian Elden, tells VG that the police are preventing him from obtaining information that could form a basis for commenting on VG’s claims. The police’s reasoning is as follows, according to Elden:

«The police want to offer Bhatti the opportunity to explain himself without having read the relevant case documents beforehand. Until he is in the custody of the Norwegian police and he has had the time and opportunity to talk to you about how he presents himself for a police statement, the most important documents will be withheld from him. We are aware that the media have discussed parts of the investigative material, but cannot assume that Bhatti has had access to the media in recent months.»

– It is therefore not possible for Bhatti to comment on VG’s questions through me, which is very unfortunate, says Elden.

Police attorney Ingvild Myrold ​​in the Oslo police district writes in an e-mail that they do not wish to comment on VG’s information.