The mass shooting in Oslo, Pride | Arfan Bhatti posted quotes about gay murder on Facebook

A few days ago, on June 14, Islamist Arfan Bhatti posted two photos on his Facebook profile. Both pictures contain quotes. In one, he encourages the killing of gays, NRK reports on Saturday night.

– The quote is one of the hadiths that is used as a basis for the death penalty for homosexuality in Islam, says Sylo Taraku, advisor in the Think Tank Agenda, to the public broadcaster.

Bhatti has also posted a picture of a burning Pride flag. The quote in this photo is related to punishment for homosexual acts.

Bhatti has been one of the leaders in the controversial group The Prophet’s Ummah. He has been convicted several times for threats, extortion and violence, but has also been acquitted in several cases, including terrorist planning.

According to VG, the Police Security Service (PST) and the Oslo police must be aware that there was contact between terror suspects Zaniar Matapour and Bhatti in 2015.

Stopped

Matapour was stopped in connection with a SIAN demonstration this spring. He must then have been in the same car as Bhatti, reports VG on Saturday night.

Attorney John Christian Elden has been appointed to defend Matapour. He has also represented Bhatti.

– I have understood it so that the episode PST now refers to that made them contact the accused in May, was that he participated in a demonstration against SIAN burning the Koran on a public street, Elden writes in an SMS to VG.

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The newspaper also writes that Matapour was reported for having been in possession of a knife in connection with the SIAN demonstration.

– I do not know who he was then with, we have not yet received any case documents from when Bhatti was stopped in the same demonstration, Elden writes in the SMS.

TV 2 also cites anonymous sources that Bhatti and Matapour have been in contact.

Motive

John Christian Elden, who defends the man who is accused of having killed two people in Oslo on Saturday, says that no motive has yet been clarified.

– I am not at all convinced that there is any motive for the action. There is nothing in his explanations so far that indicates that there is any specific motive, so I would warn against speculating whether this is linked to situations in Oslo or something else. The investigation must show that, says Elden to NRK.

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Zaniar Matapour is accused of shooting and killing two men outside the London pub, which is popular with gays, on Saturday night. Many people gathered at the site in connection with the Pride celebration this week.

42-year-old Matapour interrupted the interrogation with the police on Saturday.