The 25 June trial: – Distrustful and querulous

If the court finds that Zaniar Matapour was insane at the time of the crime, he cannot be punished and will be transferred to the health care system, under so-called compulsory mental health care, instead of prison.

Two of the experts, psychological specialists Knut-Petter Sætre Langlo and Pål Grøndahl, believe that Matapour is sane and can be punished. However, they conclude that he suffers from paranoid and dyssocial personality disorder.

– We have not registered that he has shown any form of remorse, regret or deeper reflection on his actions, says psychologist specialist Langlo in the Oslo district court on Tuesday.

The third expert, senior psychiatrist Synne Sørheim, has come to the opposite conclusion, that the 44-year-old accused of terrorism suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is therefore insane.

– Distrustful and querulous

Langlo and Grøndahl believe that Matapour belongs to a “statistically high-risk group” for new serious violence, and that the prospects for this picture to change are weak. He has been convicted three times previously, including for drug-related matters.

– It seems that he very easily comes into conflict with others and where he then quickly adopts a specific, distrustful, querulous and condescending attitude, Langlo reads from the report, dated 14 August 2023.

They believe that the conflicts appear to arise as a result of the 44-year-old’s paranoid and dyssocial character traits.

– The experts therefore find that the observer has clear psychological deviations, but not in such a way that it will significantly weaken his understanding of reality in the direction of a lack of reality, says Langlo.

Initially in the investigation, Matapour cooperated with the experts, but later broke contact with them. Thus, the 44-year-old has not explained himself particularly to the police, experts or in the trial.

Already in the first attempt to talk to him, Langlo and Sørheim must have experienced that Matapour was “angry and dismissive” when they tried to greet him on 4 July 2022, it appears in court. He is also said to have been “very selective” in what he wanted to answer.

Ex-wife: – Very difficult

Consulted with “brother”

During a meeting with Sørheim while he was under forced observation in Bergen prison in October 2022, Matapour is said to have explained that he was pursued, eavesdropped and monitored by the police and PST.

– There are limits to what a man can tolerate, he is said to have said to Sørheim, it emerged in court in March.

Towards the end of the conversation with Sørheim, Matapour is said to have said that he had decided to do something “drastic” to “hit PST where it hit the hardest”.

Furthermore, he said that he had consulted with a friend – a “brother” – beforehand, before abruptly ending the conversation with Sørheim. Matapour did not want to say anything about this in court, beyond claiming that Sørheim had made up the conversations with him.

Centrally located

Matapour is charged with aggravated terrorism after shooting and killing Kåre Hesvik (60) and Jon Erik Isachsen (54) when he opened fire on the night of Saturday 25 June 2022 at the pubs Per på kørnket and London Pub in central Oslo.

A further nine people were injured, before Matapour was overpowered by civilians.

In all Norwegian terrorism cases in recent times, the sanity issue has been central. Two different pairs of experts came to conflicting conclusions about Breivik, who was eventually found sane and sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Philip Manshaus, who killed his Chinese-born sister Johanne Ihle-Hansen and attempted to commit mass murder in the Al-Noor mosque in Bærum in late summer 2019, was also found sane and sentenced to 21 years in custody.

In March, however, it became known that the Re-admission Commission is reopening the case against Manshaus, as a result of a report from two new experts, who concluded that he was to be considered psychotic and thus insane at the time of the crime.