Arfan Bhatti, the former gang member who turned into a radical Islamist, has been indicted on charges of physically assaulting his children before he took off for the Middle East in late 2012.
Charges that Bhatti also beat his wife have been dropped, Bhatti’s defense attorney John Christian Elden told newspaper VG.
Police had used the charges of domestic violence as their reason for escorting Bhatti off a plane at Oslo’s main airport at Gardermoen earlier this month and immediately arresting him upon his return to Norway. Bhatti has mostly spent the past two years in prison in Pakistan, charged with having contact with the Taliban, but was released last August.
A court in Oslo also ordered his release from custody in Oslo on the charges of domestic violence, which Bhatti denies. The 38-year-old has a long criminal record and also has been convicted in Norway after firing shots at a synagogue in Oslo. He was acquitted of having planned a terrorist act. Local terror experts believe police now seek to distance him from radicalizing other Muslims in Norway.
newsinenglish.no staff
