Arfan Bhatti has generated headlines for years, after being arrested repeatedly on charges of everything from firing shots at a synagogue to domestic violence and Islamic terrorism. On Friday he was sentenced to Norway’s most severe punishment: 30 years in prison with the possibility of being held in custody for life.
In addition to being branded as a “dangerous man” by the judge in his case, though, he’s also known as the country’s “most acquitted” man. Longtime attorneys have managed to defend and free him on numerous occasions, but now he’s been convicted of being behind a deadly assault on Norway’s Pride celebrations in June 2022, and the judge in the case claimed there was “no room for doubt” in the prosecutors’ case against him.
Bhatti, now age 48, was in Pakistan at the time of the Pride attack but is convicted of carrying out terrorism by being part of planning the assault from afar and encouraging the convicted gunman who carried out the shootings in downtown Oslo that killed two and wounded nine. Judge Kim Heger said Bhatti also intended to get the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) to take responsibility for the attack as its first in Norway. “That would have further strengthened serious fear among the population,” Heger said.
Bhatti, who had cut his hair and was relatively clean-shaven in court, appealed on the spot. His attorney said he and Bhatti would return to court “in a few weeks” to lay out their reason for appeal.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
