A week following Norway marked the second anniversary of the mass shooting in the center of Oslo, the verdict comes once morest terrorist accused Zaniar Matapour (45). It is undisputed that he killed two people and caused nine other gunshot wounds when he picked up two firearms from a bag and fired at the crowd in and outside Per på Hjørnet and London Pub.
The mass shooting on the night of 25 June 2022 was a terrorist attack once morest gays, pride and the entire queer community, state prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø stated when the Oslo District Court heard the indictment once morest Matapour in spring. He concluded by submitting a claim that the 45-year-old must be sentenced to the harshest punishment Norwegian law allows: 30 years’ detention for aggravated terrorism.
Far from it, there is no dispute between the parties that the shooting was terrorist-motivated. The oath of allegiance, the recording of it and the forwarding to what was supposed to be an IS leader, is an expression that Matapour had terrorist intent, his defender Marius Dietrichson confirmed to NTB.
Where the parties seriously differ in their understanding of why the mass shooting might take place is in the questions of whether Zaniar Matapour was criminally sane at the time of the crime, and also in the question of whether all or parts of the act took place because the Intelligence Service encouraged and encouraged it.
– Unlawful provocation
Dietrichson claimed with strength and apparently great conviction in his proceedings before the Oslo District Court that the attack occurred as a result of illegal provocation by the Norwegian authorities. The intelligence service’s secret agent may even have triggered the attack itself by asking that an oath of allegiance be taken beforehand so that IS might take responsibility, he stated.
– It is the Intelligence Service that arranges for the accused to make contact, and when they do, they get motive, aim and meaning, he said.
Provocation is not always illegal for the police and the Norwegian Intelligence Service. It is, for example, legal for an agent to infiltrate criminal circles, commit crimes himself and approve of other people’s criminal acts in order to gain credibility. But the provocation becomes illegal when it triggers an act that would not otherwise have been committed.
– The agent may have triggered the attack with his thoughtless activity, which is completely devoid of control, by asking for an oath of allegiance. When you ask for loyalty from a terrorist milieu that is going to commit terror in Norway, that is what may have triggered the attack, said Dietrichson.
Both the Intelligence Service and the prosecution completely reject the idea that the mass shooting would not have taken place had it not been for the secret agent’s contact with two people who are linked to the planning. But should the court come to the conclusion that the communication was considered provocation, then it must conclude that it stayed within the limits of what constitutes legal provocation, argued the prosecution.
Sanity decides
The public prosecutors also believe that the court must conclude that Matapour was criminally sane on the night of 25 June two years ago – in contrast to Dietrichson, who believes that Matapour cannot be sentenced because he was insane.
Matapour was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as early as 2004. The diagnosis was confirmed in 2010. The forensic psychiatric experts conclude differently regarding his mental state at the time of the crime. But where before the word psychotic was often in practice a “the arrestee is released” card, the term is now out of the penal code, and assessments are left to a much greater extent to the court.
State prosecutor Aud Kinsarvik Gravås pointed out that a change in the law following the 22 July case raises the threshold for a defendant to be declared insane and thus be without what in law is called culpability. The change in the law means that defendants can be found sane, despite the fact that they have disorders and diagnoses that would previously have strongly drawn in the opposite direction.
– The legislature has aimed for fewer to be acquitted, and for as many as possible to be held accountable for what they have done, Gravås pointed out.
A total of 312 people have the status of offended following the Oslo shooting. They demand a total of over NOK 112 million for physical and psychological injuries they suffered.
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2024-07-04 22:58:10
