The telephone numbers were written down on two pieces of paper and stored on a SIM card. news has gone through the nine numbers Matapour had with him on the night of the terror attack on 25 June last year. All three people who are now charged with complicity in an act of terrorism were in Matapour’s pocket when he was caught. – Three people associated with the numbers were later charged in the case. The others are witnesses, police prosecutor Ingvild Myrold confirms to news. FOUND NOTES: The police in Oslo found the notes and the SIM card when Matapour was arrested. Police prosecutor Ingvild Myrold is leading the investigation. Photo: Sverre Holm-Nilsen / news Wrote down Bhatti’s number by hand On the night of 25 June last year, Zaniar Matapour was overpowered and disarmed by civilians after he had shot and killed two men and injured many more in the center of Oslo. He is charged with a serious act of terrorism. PRIDE: Thousands of people celebrated Pride in the center of Oslo when Matapour opened fire on two nightclubs. Two people were killed in the attack. Photo: Camilla Svennæs Bergland / news When the police searched Matapour, they found a yellow and a white note in his trouser pocket with nine different telephone numbers written on it. They also found a SIM card with two phone numbers. Two of the handwritten telephone numbers on the notes, one Norwegian and one Pakistani, are linked to co-accused Arfan Bhatti. news has found out that the Norwegian number belongs to Bhatti by investigating who is connected to the number in an online service where the user must log in with a bank ID. Bhatti denies any involvement in the mass shooting. – If he has Bhatti’s phone number, it is not surprising since they are acquaintances, says Bhatti’s defender John Christian Elden to news. Elden says he cannot confirm or deny that this is his number, since Bhatti has not given a statement yet. IN CHAINS: Here, Arfan Bhatti is led into a courtroom in Pakistan in chains. Norwegian police are trying to get the Islamist extradited. They believe Bhatti was absolutely central in contributing to the attack on 25 June. Last stop before the shooting Another mobile number on the notes belongs to one of the other accused in the case, a 47-year-old man with Somali citizenship. The apartment of the 47-year-old is the last known residence Matapour was in before the attack. Matapour recorded a baya – a pledge of allegiance to IS – in the apartment, before taking a taxi to central Oslo. The 47-year-old has a long criminal record in Norway. He was arrested and charged in the case in September last year. He denies criminal guilt. – There are several telephone numbers found on handwritten notes that are linked to people whom the police have found no reason to charge in the case. The fact that one of the numbers is linked to my client means nothing for the question of guilt, says the man’s defender Victoria Holmen. DEFENDER: Lawyer Victoria Holmen is defending a 47-year-old man who has been charged with complicity in an act of terrorism. Terror suspect Zaniar Matapour had written his mobile phone number on a note before the attack. Photo: news / news The 47-year-old was arrested in Oslo at the same time as a 36-year-old Norwegian-Pakistani man was taken by the police elsewhere in the capital. Leave your smartphone at home Matapour also carried the 36-year-old’s phone number during the attack. The number was on a SIM card that the suspect had stuck on the outside of the phone he was carrying. Matapour had left his regular phone at home before the attack. He was carrying a simple phone that is difficult to trace. The SIM card contained two contacts. One was for Arfan Bhatti and the other was for the 36-year-old. Defender Øyvind Bratlien has previously said that it is not possible to know why Matapour had taken the 36-year-old’s number with him, but that they are acquaintances. He has not answered news’s questions so far. The police have a theory that the 36-year-old may have helped Matapour obtain weapons before the attack. The man pleads not guilty. – The notes were important. Matapour has not explained himself to the police, so it is not known why he had several phone numbers with him. But the police believe that the killer intended to keep the contacts with him further, according to a detention order from the Oslo district court. Matapour’s defender will not comment on news’s information. – At the stage we are in the case now, I have no comment on this, says defender Marius O. Dietrichson. news’s investigations show that the nine numbers are not linked to nine different people. Several of the numbers belong to the same person. Many of the numbers are not in use today. news has identified three people on the notes apart from the accused. – The notes and the SIM card have been included as an important part of the investigation. The police identified the users of the phone numbers at an early stage, says police attorney Myrold to news. The other persons have the status of witnesses and are not suspects in the case.
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