Man Gets 30 Years In 2022 Oslo Pride Mass Shooting

Al Jazeera reports:

A court in Oslo has found an Iranian-born Norwegian man guilty of an attack during Pride celebrations in the Norwegian capital in 2022 and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Two people were killed and nine were seriously wounded in the centre of Oslo, on June 25, 2022, in the shootings at three locations, including the London Pub, a hub of the local LGBTQ scene.

The Oslo District Court said on Thursday that Zaniar Matapour, 45, fired 10 rounds with a machinegun and eight shots with a handgun into the crowd. “The attack undoubtedly targeted gay people,” the court said in its verdict. “The goal was both to kill as many gay people as possible and to instill fear in LGBTQ people more broadly.” Prosecutors said Matapour, who police said has a history of mental illness, had sworn allegiance to the ISIS (ISIL) group.

Agence France-Presse reports: 

During the course of the trial, both the prosecution and the defense agreed Matapour had fired into the crowd and there was no disputing that the attack had been motivated by terrorism.

Matapour’s lawyer, Marius Dietrichson, however, sought an acquittal, saying his client had been provoked to carry out the attack by a Danish intelligence agent posing as a high-ranking member of the IS terror group.

The shooting shocked Norway, which has a relatively low crime rate but has experienced so-called lone wolf attacks in recent decades, including one of Europe’s worst mass shootings at the hands of a right-wing extremist in 2011.

A Norwegian court has found a man guilty of murder and terrorism over a deadly shooting rampage at a gay bar in Oslo in 2022 during the city’s annual Pride celebration https://t.co/Na2kXDdMxF

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 4, 2024