The national prosecutor’s office did not receive any information that the Police Security Service (PST) started a preventive investigation in advance of the terrorist attack last summer. Official leader Jan Glent confirms this to news. Jan Glent heads the national public prosecutor’s office. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix A preventive investigation means that the PST is allowed to use covert methods such as searches, wiretapping and data reading to stop or prevent a terrorist act. The grounds for suspicion may then be lower than it needs to be to start a normal investigation. PST goes to court to get approval for the use of hidden methods. The national public prosecutor’s office has the overall prosecution responsibility for PST and is therefore informed about cases that are of interest and may later end in a court case. – I do not have any information that any preventive investigation was started by PST in advance, says Jan Glent to news. – What do you think about that? – I have no comment on that, replies Glent. Thought the suspicion was not strong enough The threshold for starting a preventive investigation is that there must be “reasonable grounds” to believe that someone is going to commit a terrorist act. The security service must then go to court to obtain an approval. PST was notified of a possible terrorist attack by the E-service a few days before Zaniar Matapour shot at several issuers in the center of Oslo. He killed two people and injured many more. PST chief Beate Gangås tells news that in the days before the attack, PST assessed that the conditions for starting such an investigation were not present. PST manager Beate Gangås. Photo: Helge Carlsen / news – The way it was assessed there then, it is my understanding that no reason was found to start an averting case, says Gangås to news. Will wait for report The warning from the E-service is said to have been that a “brother” was to carry out an attack in Scandinavia. According to VG, PST must have quickly tracked down a network around the extremist Arfan Bhatti. Nevertheless, none of these people were monitored or eavesdropped. Gangås says she does not now want to go into details about why it turned out this way. – I am keen to have respect for the work the evaluation committee has to do, she replies. The PST manager refers to the 25 June committee, which will, among other things, evaluate whether the PST could have prevented or averted the incident. – The work is also about asking how employees at PST assessed it at the time. Then you have to assess it in real time: the information they used then, and how they assessed the situation. Bare warning PST has previously said that the warning about a possible terrorist attack contained too little information for the service to take measures and called it a bare warning. – PST has previously said that the warning was naked. Is it your impression that PST received all the necessary information from the E-service? – This is also one of the things that I think is very important to be clarified in its entirety when we receive the report from the evaluation committee, answers PST manager Gangås. – As you see it now, should a preventive investigation have been started? – I cannot comment on that. I want to wait until I have the whole picture. According to what news knows, a preventive investigation was first launched after the terrorist attack on the night of 25 June last year. Preventive proceedings The Security Service also has the option of initiating what is called a preventive proceedings with the use of coercive measures. Then PST can, for example, spy on people. The threshold for starting such cases is even lower. The only requirement is that there is reason to investigate whether someone is preparing a terrorist act. This is not an investigation, and in such cases the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness is the superior body. The ministry states in an e-mail that they were not notified of specific threats in advance of the terrorist attack and refers to PST for more questions. – The ministry looks forward to that evaluation providing more answers related to the sequence of events both before, during and after the attack, communications advisor Andreas Bjørklund writes in an e-mail to news. Communications manager in the E-service, Ann-Kristin Bjergene, has previously told news that they have a close counter-terror cooperation with PST where all relevant information is shared.
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PST did not start a covert investigation before the Oslo terror attack – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
