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Norwegian police say second suspect involved in deadly Oslo shooting

Norwegian police said on Friday they had issued an international arrest warrant for a second suspect in a June shooting that killed two people near a gay bar in central Oslo.

Published: 23 September 2022 14:16 CEST

A mourner laying flowers at the site of a shooting.

Norwegian police have said a second suspect was involved in the shooting in Oslo. A woman lays down flowers at a makeshift memorial at the crime scene on June 25, 2022, in the aftermath of a shooting outside pubs and nightclubs in central Oslo killing two people injuring 21. Photo by Olivier Morin / AFP

The suspect is a Norwegian in his 40s who had already shown up on police radar and is suspected of “complicity in a terrorist act”, Borge Enoksen, a police official, told a press conference. Police think the man is currently abroad, but did not provide any more details.

According to TV2, the suspect is Arfan Bhatti, a 44-year-old Islamist with prior convictions who is thought to be in Pakistan, which does not have an extradition treaty with Norway.

On June 25th, Zaniar Matapour, 43, is alleged to have opened fire near a gay bar in central Oslo in the early morning hours, amid celebrations linked to the city’s Pride festival.

The shooting killed two men, aged 54 and 60, and wounded 21 others, with Matapour quickly arrested. Matapour, a Norwegian of Iranian origin, had been known to Norway’s PST intelligence service since 2015, with concerns about his radicalisation and membership of “an extremist Islamist network”.

Norway’s domestic intelligence service has previously described the attack as “an act of Islamist terrorism” and said Matapour had “difficulties with his mental health”. He is currently at a psychiatric hospital for court-ordered mental evaluation.

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Norwegian police charge Olympic champion's father for domestic violence

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, who are also athletes, shocked Norway last October when they accused their father of being violent.

“We grew up with a very aggressive and authoritarian father, who used physical violence and threats as part of his upbringing,” the brothers wrote in an op-ed for newspaper VG. “We still feel a sense of discomfort and fear that we have felt since childhood,” they added.

Police opened a probe into the abuse claims and on Monday said prosecutors had decided to charge Gjert Ingebrigtsen, 58, with domestic violence against one of his children.

According to a source close to the case, the acts in question do not concern the trio of known athletes but another, younger child.

Over a period of four years, from 2018 to 2022, Gjert Ingebrigtsen allegedly manhandled, insulted, threatened and hit the child in the face with his hand or with a towel.

Responding to questions from AFP, Therese Braut Vage, who led the investigation, would not confirm this account.

Police said they had closed investigations into other events concerning the six other children in the home either due to a lack of evidence or, in one case, because the statute of limitations having expired.

Gjert, who coached Jakob until after the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where Jakob won the gold — has always denied the accusations against him.

“As far as the dismissed cases, we agree that there is no evidence to prove that Ingebrigtsen committed any wrongdoing,” his lawyer John Christian Elden told AFP on Monday.

“For the rest, Ingebrigtsen disputes the description of the facts on which the indictment is based — and he therefore does not admit his guilt,” he continued in an email.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the most successful of the three brothers, twice winning gold in the world championships 5000m in 2022 and 2023, as well as the Olympic 1500m gold.

The 23-year-old is also preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Henrik, 33, and Filip, 31, were European champions in the 1500m in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

After breaking with his sons, Gjert Ingebrigtsen shocked Norwegian athletics by becoming the trainer of another runner, Narve Gilje Nordas.

The Norwegian Olympic Committee has said that Gjert will not be granted accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, as was the case at last year’s World Athletics Championships.

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