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Norway woman charged with murder of husband ‘withdrew restraining order’

A woman from Oslo who has been arrested and charged with the murder of her husband was granted a restraining order against him but withdrew it.

Norway woman charged with murder of husband 'withdrew restraining order'
A police technician at the scene on Tuesday night. Photo: Audun Braastad / NTB scanpix

The woman, who is in her 40s, is charged with killing her husband in the Grefsen neighbourhood of Oslo on Tuesday evening, reports newspaper Dagbladet.

Neither the woman or the man, who was in his thirties, have previous convictions, but the woman reported the man for violence twice in 2014, reports the newspaper.

“One report was withdrawn and the other was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. The woman was granted a restraining order, but withdrew it,” Kjetil Moen, acting head of the serious crime department at Oslo Police, said according to the report.

The woman is scheduled to appear before court Thursday with a view to being placed in custody.

She refused to be questioned by police on Tuesday night, reports Dagbladet.

Moen said that police were engaged in dialogue regarding interrogation with the woman and her lawyer.

Mette Yvonne Larsen, the lawyer for the woman, told Dagbladet that it was not yet possible to say how the woman would plead in relation to the charge.

The lawyer told news agency NTB that her client would cooperate with police.

The stabbing in Grefsing in Oslo was reported on Tuesday night to police, who spoke to one of the woman’s two teenage sons.

One of the woman’s sons witnessed part of the stabbing, according to Dagbladet’s report.

The victim was alive when police and ambulance services arrived at the scene, but was declared dead shortly after.

According to a report by newspaper VG, the man was a Gambian national with no known family in Norway who was working in Oslo.

Police declined to go into further details relating to the couple’s marriage, but confirmed to Dagbladet that they were married “some years ago” and certainly before 2014.

“They lived together for three years after the reports [against the man by the woman, ed.], so we must look at the woman’s explanation before we can draw conclusions,” Moen told Dagbladet.

READ MORE: All the news from Oslo

OSLO

Norwegian prosecutor wants maximum sentence for Oslo Pride shooter

Norway's public prosecutor on Tuesday asked that the maximum penalty of potentially life behind bars be handed down to the alleged perpetrator of the fatal shooting at Oslo's 2022 Pride festival.

Norwegian prosecutor wants maximum sentence for Oslo Pride shooter

Zaniar Matapour, a 44-year-old Norwegian of Iranian origin, has been on trial since mid-March and is accused of an “aggravated act of terror”.

Matapour is accused of opening fire outside two bars in central Oslo, including the gay club London Pub, on the night of June 25th, just hours before the Oslo Pride Parade was to be held.

Two men, aged 54 and 60, were killed and nine others were wounded.

“There is no reason as to why the maximum sentence cannot be used in a case like this,” prosecutor Aud Kinsarvik Gravas said.

The maximum sentence is 30 years but can be extended indefinitely.

“He has shown no remorse or reflection. We have seen no change in him” over the last two years, Kinsarvik Gravas said.

Matapour, who was restrained by passersby after the shooting, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and has never revealed his motives. He pleaded not guilty.

Psychiatric experts have been divided over his mental health, and thereby his legal responsibility, but the public prosecutor deemed him criminally responsible at the time of the events and that he deliberately targeted the gay community.

The sentence sought against him, which includes a minimum of 20 years, would in practice keep him in detention for as long as he is deemed a danger to society.

The alleged mastermind behind the attack, Arfan Bhatti, a 46-year-old Islamist well-known in Norway, was extradited on May 3rd from Pakistan, where he had taken up residence before the shooting.

He will be tried at a later date.

The final part of the trial, due to last until Thursday, will be devoted to the defence case.

A verdict is not expected for several weeks.

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