Man sentenced to 30 years in Norway for involvement in LGBT festival attack
Kyiv • UNN
A Norwegian court has sentenced 48-year-old Arfan Bhatti to 30 years in prison for organizing a shooting at a gay bar during Pride in 2022. Two people were killed and eight were injured; the shooter, Zaniar Matapour, also received a 30-year sentence.
A Norwegian court on Friday found an Islamist guilty of organizing a deadly shooting at a gay bar during Oslo's Pride celebrations in 2022 and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. This was reported by Reuters, writes UNN.
Details
Arfan Bhatti, a 48-year-old Norwegian citizen born in Oslo, was tried on charges of complicity in an aggravated terrorist act — for planning the attack, despite being in Pakistan at the time of the shooting.
Two people died and eight others suffered gunshot wounds when a lone gunman, Iranian-born Norwegian citizen Zaniar Matapour, opened fire at the London Pub — one of Oslo's LGBTQ+ life centers — and a neighboring bar in the center of the Norwegian capital. Dozens of others suffered minor injuries in the chaos that followed the attack.
In July 2024, Matapour was found guilty of murder and aggravated terrorism for committing the attack and was also sentenced to 30 years in prison — the maximum sentence under Norwegian law.
Addition
Bhatti was extradited to Norway in 2024 and has been in custody ever since. On Friday, he informed the judge that he would appeal the conviction.
An independent investigation into the authorities' actions, completed in 2023, concluded that the police could have prevented the attack if they had acted on information received from a foreign intelligence service.
Two independent forensic psychiatrists in court concluded that Bhatti has a severe antisocial personality disorder and meets the criteria for psychopathy, while also determining that he remains criminally responsible for his actions.