Norwegian prosecutors confirmed on Friday that Zaniar Matapour, age 44, has been indicted for aggravated terror during last year’s Oslo Pride celebrations. Four others are also charged as accessories to the attack, during which Matapour fired 18 shots that killed two men, wounded nine others and injured 25 more.
Matapour was ultimately tackled by passersby who held him down until police arrived. He has been in prison since the attacks on June 25, 2022, and now faces a lengthy trial set to begin next spring and last more than two months. He faces 30 years in prison.
He’s one of five people now charged in the attack including the radical Norwegian Islamist Arfan Bhatti, currently in prison in Pakistan and awaiting extradition back to Norway. A Norwegian woman in her 30s was also charged last week as an accomplice to the attack, with an international warrant out for her arrest. The two others are a man in his 30s and a man in his 40s.
The attacks shocked Norway and have been classified as the worst since a right-wing extremist set of a massacre at a Labour Party summer camp on July 22, 2011. Matapour’s trial is due to begin on March 11 and run until May 16.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
