Norwegian-born Islamic extremist Arfan Bhatti faces as many as 30 years or more in jail after being indicted in connection with a terrorist attack on Oslo Pride celebrations in June 2022. He’s suspected of being behind the attack carried out by another extremist, Zaniar Matapour, who was sentenced to an historically long jail term last summer.
Two people were killed and several others seriously wounded whem Matapour started shooting at people out celebrating Pride in downtown Oslo nearly three years ago. Prosecutors now claim Bhatti assisted Matapour in planning the attack, helped arrange contact with the terror organization IS and in obtaining the weapon used. He traveled to Pakistan three weeks before the attack in Oslo but was later arrested there and extradited to Norway last year.
Bhatti is also accused of proposing attacks on the Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad and against the family of former NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. Bhatti allegedly thought he was making such proposals on the phone to an IS representative, but was actually speaking with an agent for the Norwegian intelligence service E-tjenesten.
Bhatti, whose prior trouble with the law stems back to criminal gang involvement as a teenager, an attack on a synagogue in Oslo and various terror charges along with domestic violence, is currently being held in the Kongsvinger Prison and faces trial this autumn.
NewsinEnglish.no staff