The shooting” target=”_blank”>suspect in a mass shooting< on Saturday and again on Sunday without success. Norwegian media identified him as Zaniar Matapour.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit, center, and Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, center right, leave after a service in Oslo Cathedral, Oslo, Sunday June 26, 2022, after an attack in Oslo on Saturday. A gunman opened fire in Oslo’s nightlife district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 wounded in what the Norwegian security service called an "Islamist terror act" during the capital’s annual LGBTQ Pride festival. (Javad Parsa/NTB via AP)
(AP)
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Matapour’s defense lawyer, John Christian Elden, told The Associated Press by email that his client refused to have his statement recorded and videotaped unless police released the entire recording to the public “with no time delay so it won’t be censored or manipulated.”
Recording interrogations is a standard police practice.
Elden previously said his client did not deny being the shooter but had not divulged any motive. The lawyer said Sunday that Matapour did not object to remaining in custody for four weeks so would not appear in court on Monday.
In Norway, pre-trial detention hearingsa> are normally held every four weeks.<
Norwegian media said Matapour arrived in Norway with his family from a Kurdish part of Iran in the 1990s.
He had a prior criminal record that included a narcotics offense and a weapons offense for carrying a knife. Investigators said they seized two weapons after Saturday’s shootings: a handgun and an automatic weapon.
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The Norwegian domestic security agency, known by its Norwegian acronym PST, said Saturday it first became aware of the suspect in 2015 and later grew concerned he had become radicalized and was part of an unspecified Islamist network.
On Sunday, Norwegian media outlets reported that Matapour allegedly was in close contact with an Islamic extremist living in Norway whom Norwegian police had been aware of for a long time.
