– The incident tonight is a terrible incident, says PST chief Roger Berg during a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
He states that PST, after the night’s mass shooting in central Oslo, raises the terrorist threat level from moderate to extraordinary.
According to witnesses, the shooting started outside the pub Per on the corner, because the perpetrator moved on towards London pub, which is a popular nightclub in the capital’s queer environment.
Two people were killed and 21 injured after the incident.
The accused’s motive is not known, but hate crime and mental illness are among the clues the police are investigating.
The PST chief states that the level of terrorist threat is assessed on an ongoing basis.
HEROIC EFFORT: The video shows the perpetrator running, only to be caught later. Video: Andreas Blix / Tipser. sea view
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Known to the accused since 2015
The 42-year-old man Zaniar Matapour, who is charged with murder, attempted murder and terror after the mass shooting, is said to have a long history of various mental disorders.
It appears from court documents Dagbladet has reviewed.
The documents also describe a long history of violence and dealing with and access to weapons.
PST has known the man since 2015 and investigated whether he has been radicalized and whether he can be linked to an extremist Islamist environment.
They had a concern interview in May, the PST chief states, and have been familiar with his mental problems.
– We consider the shooting as an extreme Islamist terrorist act. Efforts are being made to clarify the degree of ideological motivation and connections to other extremists or associated networks, says Berg.
He begins by raising the level of threat by saying that terrorist acts that are carried out have the potential to inspire others.
The PST chief asks people to have a low threshold for contacting PST and the police if they see something they are “unsure of”.
The 42-year-old Matapour is said to have fled to Norway from the Kurdish part of Iran with his family in 1991. The family first came to Bergen. Two years later, in 1993, the family moved to Oslo.
Since then, Matapour, which has previously changed its name, has been registered at a number of addresses in Oslo.
He is currently a Norwegian citizen, and must have been on disability benefits since 2013.
As a schoolboy in the 90s, he was convicted, and then acquitted, of complicity in stabbing. Matapour was nevertheless convicted of aggravated street violence, and the court at the time took into account his “obvious mental problems”.
The 42-year-old has also been convicted of drugs. In Oslo District Court in 2016, he was sentenced to 120 days in prison, of which 90 were conditional, for possession of drugs. The circumstances for which Matapour was convicted were from almost ten years ago, and were a strong contributor to the sentence not being extended, it is stated at the end.
He was convicted of carrying a knife in a public place, according to a judgment from the Oslo District Court from September 2020.
The terrorist accused was sentenced to pay a fine of 12,000 kroner and the court decided to confiscate the seized knife, which is described as a folding knife. The accused appealed the verdict, but the appeal was not upheld by the Court of Appeal.
It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
