COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A verdict is expected Thursday in the trial of an Iranian-born Norwegian man facing terrorism charges in an attack that left two people dead and nine seriously injured at three locations during an LGBTQ+ festival in Oslo, Norway, in 2022.
The Oslo District Court is due to rule on whether Zanyar Matapour fired 10 shots from a machine gun and eight shots from a handgun, mainly into a crowd, on June 25, 2022, outside the popular gay bar The London Pub.
Prosecutors said Matapour, 45, a Norwegian national of Iranian origin, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Extensive video footage of the attack was presented to the court. The verdict will not be read out in court but will be sent electronically. Mathapur will have the verdict read to him in prison, the court said.
The Pride parade was cancelled after police said they could not guarantee safety, and Mr Matapur was subdued by passers-by and arrested after the attack.
The shooting shocked Norway, which has a relatively low crime rate, and has seen a string of lone wolf attacks in recent decades, including Europe’s worst mass shooting. In 2011, a right-wing extremist killed 69 people on the island of Utoya after detonating a bomb in Oslo, killing eight people.
Six days before the attack, Norway’s foreign intelligence service, E-Tjenesten, learned from undercover agents about a possible attack in a Nordic country, and the information was passed on to domestic security services.
Through his lawyer, Mattapur has maintained his innocence. He has been examined by a court-appointed psychiatrist, who determined he was sane at the time of the attack.
Prosecutors had sought a 30-year sentence. Matapur’s lawyers had argued for acquittal, arguing that his client was instigated to carry out the attack by E-Tjenesten operatives posing as Islamic State officials.
The trial began in March and ended on May 16.
