Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl was not notified of threats ahead of the attack on 25 June last year. She states this in a statement to news. TV 2 reported the statement first. – As PST itself points out, they handle a number of alerts about possible threats. It is the PST that must assess which cases should be referred to the Ministry of Justice, she writes. – Like many others, I am concerned that we get more answers in this case, so that we can assess whether something should have been done differently and learn lessons. Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp). Photo: Even Bjøringsøy Johnsen / news Mehl writes that the ongoing evaluation of the police and PST’s handling of the case is very important. – It is in the mandate that the sequence of events leading up to the incident must be evaluated, including the preventive work based on information the police or PST had prior to the incident, as well as information sharing and interaction. The Minister of Justice: Up to PST to consider Yesterday it became known that the National Intelligence Service found out about terrorist plans against Scandinavia six days before the Oslo terror attack on 25 June last year. A person with knowledge of the case claims to news that the intelligence service used a person with a fictitious identity to obtain information in the case. They passed the information on to PST, who say they took the alert seriously. They did not pass the warning on to the police in Oslo, and thus neither did the Ministry of Justice. Both the FRP and Venstre have previously come out and demanded answers from the minister. Ingvild Wetrhus Thorsvik sits on the justice committee for the Liberal Party. Photo: Patrick da Silva Sæther / news Ingvild Wetrhus Thorsvik, who sits on the justice committee for the Liberal Party, says she has asked Justice Minister Mehl a number of questions she believes will be relevant after yesterday’s revelations. – When did PST get the information, what did they get information about and what did they do with the information they got? So I have asked the Minister of Justice if she will ensure that you get clarity and if she will ask for an evaluation that has been between the E-service, PST and the Oslo police district, says Thorsvik. Defender: The intelligence service should be searched Marius Dietrichson is the defender of terrorist suspect Zaniar Matapour, who killed two and injured 24 when he shot at several nightclubs in Oslo this summer. A total of four are charged in the case, including internationally wanted Arfan Bhatti. Marius Dietrichson asks the police to use coercive measures to obtain the complete message exchange between the e-service and an Islamist. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news – There is every reason to ask whether the terrorist act would have taken place if it had not been for the Norwegian agents’ involvement, he says to news. Dietrichson says he has not been given access to the complete exchange of messages between the intelligence service and an Islamist, but that he has asked the police for this. Nor have the police received the entire message exchange, according to Dietrichson. – I have asked the police to involve the intelligence service in the investigation and make them a party, and investigate whether they had a role in what took place. PST: Limited which measures we can take He does not think the intelligence service had bad intentions, but that it looks as if the action would not have taken place if they had not been involved. – Now that we don’t get to know what they have done, that they are withholding message traffic, the police will have to deal with it in another way. You have to use coercive means, and travel up to Lutvann at the head office of the intelligence service and collect it – with or without the intelligence service’s consent, says Dietrichson. Oslo Police District denies to news that it is appropriate to investigate the e-service. – The way we read the content of the information we received, we see no basis for investigating the intelligence service, police attorney Ingvild Myrvold responds to Dietrichson’s claims. She says the police received information from the intelligence service on 25 August last year. According to Myrvold, it will be the first time intelligence has been shared with the police for use in investigations. – The police have asked the intelligence service if there is more information, and if it does, whether we can use it in the investigation, says Myrvold, and adds that the police are waiting for a response to this request. Assistant head of PST Hedvig Moe. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB Assistant head of PST, Hedvig Moe, says that the notice contained too little information for the ordinary police to be notified. She also says that PST is not allowed to take measures unless they have more concrete information to base the measures on. – We did not receive any information about time, place, person or what was going to happen. If we are to give any information to the police about a possible terrorist attack, then they must be able to do something to stop the attack, says Moe. – If not, we put the police in an impossible situation where they cannot do anything in practice, she adds, referring to the fact that they did not have enough information about the possible attack. Tight-lipped about information from the intelligence service Moe clarifies to news that PST took the alert from the intelligence service seriously and prioritized working out information on its own. When PST received the notification from the intelligence service, she did not want to respond. – The intelligence service says they gave you ongoing information. Is it a description of reality that you recognize? – I register that they mention this by providing information to us in the media. As of now, I don’t want to go into that. – Do you think you got the whole picture? – I think it is the intelligence service that answers that, Moe replies, and adds: – The intelligence service is the owner of that information, so if they wanted more information, then it is up to them to say something about it. Ann-Kristin Bjergene, head of communications in the Norwegian Intelligence Service, has been presented with the quotes from PST. She writes in an e-mail to news that she cannot comment on operational matters. – On a general basis, it should be emphasized that we have close counter-terror cooperation with PST where all relevant information is shared, writes Bjergene. Flowers and rainbow flags in Rosenkrantz gate in Oslo. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTBBFlowers and rainbow flags in Rosenkrantz gate in Oslo. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB The police trust PST Martin Strand, head of joint operational services in the Oslo police district, tells news that he believes they have a good cooperation with PST – also in connection with larger events such as the pride celebration. Martin Strand in the police. Photographed on a previous occasion. Photo: Anders Fehn / news – We relate to the threat assessments that apply at all times. We also did that in connection with pride that was to be held last summer. If PST had placed information they believed was relevant to the Oslo police district, we have confidence that they would have passed it on to us, says Strand. Hedvig Moe in PST says PST takes it very seriously when such terrorist incidents take place. – We were in a situation last summer that we absolutely want to avoid. In many ways, it is our main task to avoid such incidents. – If PST had received more information from the intelligence service, would you have had a better opportunity to prevent it? – If we had had more information about the time, place, person or what was going to happen, we would definitely have been much better able to both assess the reality and the seriousness of the situation and assess and initiate measures. Police in Rosenkrantz’ street the day after the shooting. Photo: Javad M. Parsa / NTB Pride celebration postponed Moe also says that PST had set the terrorist threat level to 3 – moderate, which means that it is possible that a terrorist attack will take place. – We knew that events in May and June were particularly postponed. Queer events were particularly exposed as targets from extreme Islamist and extreme right-wing circles. Martin Strand in the Oslo police district tells news they have a number of measures they can implement around events. – Both preventive, safety-related, with visible and invisible personnel. That was also planned for during this event, he says, referring to the pride celebration. Strand does not want to speculate on what other measures the police would have taken if they had been informed of the terrorist threat. – We rely on the information we have at all times.
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Therefore, PST did not inform the police about the threat situation – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
