Norwegian police doubt that archer took conversion to Islam seriously – SME.sk

OSLO. Norwegian police have growing doubts that the motif of Wednesday’s attack in Kongsberg was Islamist ideology, as they originally thought.

Investigators are increasingly inclined to kill the perpetrator under the influence of his mental illness.

This was stated at a press conference on Saturday by police inspector Per Thomas Omholt, the DPA news agency reported.

He did not take Islam seriously

According to Omholt, the investigation revealed that the suspect did not take his alleged conversion to Islam seriously.

“We mean that he did not follow and use the traditions that are common in this culture and religion,” the policeman said, adding that “everything suggests that he chose his victims at random.”

According to the police, he acted alone and thought about his attack “several days” before committing it.

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The DPA reported that a 37-year-old Dan living in the Danish town of Kongsberg had meanwhile admitted to killing five people in the center of the town on Wednesday night by archery.

After his arrest, the court took him into custody for four weeks on Friday, of which the first two will be in complete isolation. Due to his medical condition, a man isolated in a medical facility.

The police have heard him three times so far and will hear him again “as soon as his condition allows”.

In the meantime, the Norwegian media reported that the Norwegian intelligence service PST had already received a tip on this Danish citizen as a suspect in 2015.

He killed five people with a bow

This was confirmed to the Verdens Gang (VG) by Arne Christian Haugstöyl, head of the PST counter-terrorism department, who added that at the time it was considered unlikely that the man could commit a politically motivated act of violence. According to Omholt, the man lived alone: ​​he did not look for contacts on the Internet or in everyday life.

In 2017, the man, identified as Espen Andersen Bråthen, published a video on social media calling himself a Muslim and a “messenger” and claiming that he had been entrusted with a “mission”. PST did not evaluate this video as a threat because the essence of the “mission” was not specified.

The AP reported on Saturday that the Norwegian authorities had ordered an independent investigation into the conduct of the police and security agencies in relation to the perpetrator of the attack in Kongsberg.

Wednesday’s attack claimed five lives between the ages of 52 and 78 and three injured, who had already been released from hospital for home treatment.