Bhatti transported to Kongsvinger prison – will testify in the June 25 trial next week

At 6.30pm on Friday evening, a private plane landed at Oslo Airport. On board was 46-year-old Bhatti, who is charged with complicity in the terrorist shooting in Oslo on 25 June 2022. He was escorted by Norwegian police after being extradited from Pakistan.

Bhatti was then driven away in a black Mercedes by the Police Immigration Unit (PU), the drivers of the car having covered their faces with hoods and sunglasses.

– My colleague, lawyer Farid Bouras, is together with Arfan Bhatti in Kongsvinger prison for an initial interview, writes lawyer John Christian Elden in a message to NTB.

– We will continue the talks tomorrow and only then provide an update on how he is going to be remanded in custody. We have no further comments this evening, he writes further.

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Imprisonment Saturday

On Saturday, Bhatti will be produced for remand. It has not been confirmed whether he will meet physically or whether it will be office business.

The 46-year-old is charged with complicity in the terrorist shooting in Oslo on 25 June 2022, where two people were shot and killed when terrorist suspect Zaniar Matapour opened fire on the nightclubs Per på Hjørnet and London Pub. The 46-year-old has been imprisoned in Pakistan for the past year and a half, where there have been countless court hearings to have him extradited to Norway.

On Friday morning, word came that Bhatti was on his way to Norway on a plane together with the Norwegian police.

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Bhatti will be presented as a witness in the ongoing trial against Zaniar Matapour on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, according to the Oslo police. It has not yet been confirmed whether Bhatti will appear physically in court or whether he will explain himself via video link for security reasons.

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Extensive communication with Matapour

In the investigation after the June 25 attack, police found extensive communications with Bhatti when they reviewed the electronic devices of Zaniar Matapour after the mass shooting.

The phone he had with him during the shooting had never been used. But under the battery cover, the police found two SIM cards, one of which contained four contact entries – two of which were for Arfan Bhatti.

Bhatti is generally a regular in the communications Matapour had through encrypted chat services, according to the police. Bhatti’s phone number has also been found on handwritten notes associated with Matapour.

The police also found several videos of gross violence that were shared in a chat group Matapour and Bhatti participated in. The videos show, among other things, gang shootings and people with injuries “that are not compatible with their continuing alive”, according to police experts.

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“Pray for the brother”

The messages the police have gained access to, however, also show rather undramatic exchanges between Bhatti and Matapour about sick children, as well as picking up and delivering children to the nursery in the months before the mass shooting. Bhatti and Matapour appear to be relatively close and confidential friends, according to the prosecutor in the case.

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About an hour after the mass shooting at the pubs Per på Hjørnet and London Pub, Bhatti asked friends in a chat group to perform “dua for the brother”. The police have translated this into Bhatti asking the other participants in the chat group to “pray for his brother”, presumably Matapour.

After Matapour’s identity became public knowledge and the photo of him lying on the ground after the shooting incident was published in the press, Arfan Bhatti posted a large heart emoji under the screenshot. Other participants in the chat group also posted hearts.

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– Can give several answers

Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) called in the press on Friday morning when it became known that Bhatti was on his way to Norway. She thanked everyone who had contributed to the extradition, including the Norwegian embassy in Pakistan.

– Now that we have succeeded, it may provide more answers to what happened on the terrible night of June 25, 2022. Whether he is guilty is up to the legal system to decide, Mehl said.

– No matter where in the world someone is, they must know that if they contribute to serious terrorist acts in Norway, the Norwegian authorities will do everything we can to prosecute them and hold the guilty accountable, she said.

The police have known for a long time that Bhatti would arrive in Norway on Friday, says police attorney Ingvild Myrold ​​to NTB. She says they have been trying to interrogate Bhatti in Pakistan for a long time.

– He then did not want to answer about the charge itself, but answered about other topics. We will see now, in dialogue with the defenders, whether he is willing to be questioned again, says Myrold ​​to NTB.