Court convicts man of shooting at Oslo synagogue

Three Norwegians acquitted of plotting attacks against Israeli, US embassies in 2006. One of them found guilty of being behind shooting at temple, but court concludes it was not an act of terror

Reuters | Published: 06.03.08, 22:18

Three Norwegians were acquitted Tuesday of plotting attacks against Israeli and US embassies in 2006, but one was convicted of a shooting at an Oslo synagogue.

The Oslo District Court said there was insufficient evidence against Arfan Bhatti and two other suspects in Norway's first terrorism trial since anti-terror laws were strengthened after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The charges of plotting embassy attacks - which never took place - were partly based on a police recording of the suspects talking about ways to attack the embassies.

The court described the monitored conversation as "frightening," but did not find sufficient proof that it was "a concrete, final and seriously meant agreement" to attack the embassies.

Judge Kim Heger said that demands for clear evidence in terror cases were very strict. "The threshold for being charged under (the anti-terrorism law) was designed by the lawmakers to be high," Heger said.

The court, however, found Bhatti guilty of being behind a shooting at a synagogue in Oslo on September 17, 2006, but concluded that it was not an act of terror. No one was injured in the shooting.

Bhatti, 30, was also found guilty of the illegal possession of weapons, making threats and of being an accomplice to the attempted murder of a Norwegian businessman in 2006.

Bhatti, who has a criminal record, was given an eight-year prison sentence, with the possibility of extending it if authorities were convinced it would be unsafe to release him.

The two other defendants were released after being acquitted.

Andreas Bog Kristiansen, 28, was found not guilty of plotting attacks against embassies, while Ibrahim Oezbabacan, 29, was found not guilty of firing shots or being an accomplice in the synagogue attack.