25 June trial: – Said they were going to kill him

Psychiatrist Synne Sørheim presented his report on terror defendant Zaniar Matapour (44) in Oslo District Court on Thursday.

She disagrees with the other two experts, psychologist specialists Knut-Petter Sætre Langlo and Pål Grøndahl, who believe Matapour is sane and can be punished.

– The subject satisfies the criteria for schizophrenia, Sørheim read from the report in the Oslo district court – and pointed to his history of “violent, hostile and difficult behaviour”.

It is the judges in the trial who must decide whether the 44-year-old accused of terrorism should be assessed as insane at the time of the crime.

– Troubled by voices

Sørheim pointed out that Matapour has had “serious regulation difficulties” related to aggression, unrest and violence ever since he was a child. In 1999, he is said to have reported hearing voices for the first time.

– The voices said that they were going to take him, that they were after him and that they were going to kill him. The information was later repeated at all institutions where the observer received treatment during the period, says Sørheim.

Matapour is said not to have found techniques to silence the voices, and stated that he “was troubled or suffering” as a result, according to Sørheim.

Ex-wife: – Very difficult

In recent times, he is said to have intended to see detectives at the health centre, the subway and on the streets.

– The observer believed to see a change in people’s faces and eyes. This was considered by the expert to be possible visual hallucinosis. The observation was considered by experts to describe a long-standing, detailed and extensive system of paranoid delusions, says Sørheim.

In the prison cell, he is said to have dismantled the calling phone several times, wrapped it in a towel and tried to deliver it to prison officers on the grounds that it was “a dangerous object”.

Paranoid behavior

Matapour’s contact with the mental health service started already at the age of 18. Before that, he had been under the care of child protection since he was 15 years old.

In a number of notes and journals from various aid agencies, reference is made to behavior that was understood as paranoid, and which was eventually used as the basis for Matapour’s diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia:

• A series of delusions, which have expressed themselves in a paranoid demeanor and statements.
• Hallucinations, primarily voices he has heard, saying they are after him and are going to kill him.
• Striking and hostile behavior and body language. Scowling and suspicious look.
• Poor and staring eye contact.
• Signs of thought disorders, which have resulted in him being perceived as slow in his speech, taking long pauses before answering questions and occasionally falling out while speaking.

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 re-opening 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.