Terror charged Russian wished to kill Europeans
The Russian charged with terror after knife stabbing in a Kiwi store says he wished to kill several Europeans. Kiwi – and Norway – was randomly chosen.
The 20-years-old Russian is detained for four weeks.
Oslo District Court decided that on Saturday. His lawyer, Ola Lunde, agrees that custodial detention is an absolutely necessary measure.
“I am of the opinion that custodial detention is a very intrusive measure, but this is one of the few cases where I actually think it is necessary for the safety of the public,” Lunde explains adding:
“I think this could have gone terribly wrong if the police hadn’t stopped him. I think we could have faced a horrid scenario.”
Inspired by terror attacks
The accused has told he is inspired by terrorist attacks, such as the attack in Paris in November 2015, that cost 130 persons their lives. Also by the attack in Berlin in December 2018, when a truck ran straight into a crowd at a Christmas market. Twelve people were killed and 48 wounded in the latter attack.
“He has drawn parallels to what has happened in Paris, and to what has happened in Germany, and says that he would have liked to have participated,” according to the Lawyer.
Lunde does not buy the Special Branch (PST) theory that the man is a terrorist. Lunde wants the Russian to be assisted by the Health Care Services. He informs that the young man recognises that he is mentally ill.
“He is a confused and lonely boy. He says he wants to kill Europeans, whom he thinks are having too good lives,” the lawyer explains.
Lunde thinks the client is not affiliated with any terrorist organisation.
“What I can say is that he is a lone wolf who operates alone and has no network, neither here in Norway or anyplace else,” the lawyer opinionates.
Norway was randomly chosen
According to Lunde, it was at random that it was a woman in a Kiwi store in Oslo who was attacked, and it was also coincidental that the man chose Norway.
“He says he wanted to kill several and that Kiwi was a random target,“ Lunde informs.
The accused man comes from the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan and is a Russian citizen, PST chief, Benedicte Bjørnland, tells NTB. He travelled to Norway via Sweden on Thursday.
Critical
The man is charged with violating § 131 of the Penal Code, which addresses acts of terrorism. PST will consider whether the incident affects the general threat picture in Norway.
Benedicte Bjørnland states that the incident could be the first knife attack with random victims in Norway that could potentially be linked to extreme Islamism.
The victim is a 25-years-old woman from Lier in Buskerud. She is critically injured after being stabbed by a knife.
The woman was stabbed in the back when she was at the checkout. The man then allegedly waved the knife at the cashier before escaping from the store.
He was apprehended near the scene a short while later.
PST asks for four weeks remand prison for the man, according to NRK.
The Russian embassy in Oslo announces that they are in contact with the Norwegian police in the case.
Facts about terror cases in Norway in recent years
- January 17th, 2019: A 20-year-old Russian is charged with terror after having stabbed a 25-years-old woman inside a Kiwi store in Oslo.
- January 14th, 2019: A 31-years-old woman from Nordfjordeid in Sogn & Fjordane met in Oslo District Court, as the first terrorist-charged woman in Norway. She was arrested in Austria in November 2017. The prosecutor believes she was on her way to Syria to marry a foreign warrior. Among other things, she is accused of financially supporting ISIL fighters.
- November 2018: A Norwegian-Syrian man was sentenced to six and a half years’ imprisonment for terrorist federations and participation in ISIL in the Borgarting Court of Appeal. In 2014, the man travelled from Senja to Syria together with his former wife and their five children. In Syria, the then wife and children were housed in a house with other women and children, while the man was sent by ISIL to a training camp in Raqqa.
- September 24th, 2018: An engineer who was employed by Aker Solutions was sentenced in Asker and Bærum District Court to two and a half years in prison for urging terrorist acts. The verdict is appealed.
- September 4th, 2018: The Supreme Court sentenced Ubaydullah Hussain to nine years in prison or recruited foreign warriors to ISIL and to spread propaganda for the organisation.
- August 2018: A 34-years-old from Verdal was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison in Borgarting Court of Appeal for having participated in ISIL in Syria and entered into a terrorist association with ISIL members.
- September 2017: A 34-years-old Lebanese was arrested in Central Norway and is charged with having planned or prepared terrorist acts in Syria. He is charged with having entered into a terrorist federation and for participation in the terrorist organisation Nusra front. The trial against him is scheduled for the Oslo District Court at the end of March 2019, but no charges have yet been made yet.
- April 8th, 2017: An 18-years-old Russian was arrested with a homemade explosive device on Greenland in Oslo after a major police action. He was first charged with the terrorist provisions in the Penal Code, but the charge was changed to illegal handling of explosive material. He is sentenced to ten months in prison by the Supreme Court.
- March 13th, 2017: The trial of terrorist accused Najmaddin Faraj Ahmad (aka Mullah Krekar) and five others started in Bolzano in Italy, but have since been postponed several times. In December 2018, the case was again postponed – until February 4, 2019. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice then stated that Ahmad has received documents so that he can travel to Italy and meet in the terror case against him.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today