The Oslo man (23) has spent a year in custody in Romerike prison in Ullersmo outside Oslo. He looks forward to explaining himself in court, and wants to lay all his cards on the table. news meets him in a visiting room in the prison. He arrives in sweatpants and a green T-shirt. He spends his time behind bars training. And not least to think about why it has gone wrong, he says. On Monday, he will appear in the Oslo district court, in a very serious terrorist case. He is accused of inciting terrorism and of participating in the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. – I wasn’t hooked on the message, I was hooked on the affiliation, says the 23-year-old, who pleads guilty after the indictment. For a year he has been behind bars at Ullersmo. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / news Studied medicine The man was a medical student in Bulgaria when he was arrested in the summer of 2022. According to the indictment, he had then been active in the newly established group Hurras al-Tawheed in social media for a year. The indictment concerns, among other things, the content of these journals. Frederik G. Ranke, state attorney and prosecutor in the case against the 23-year-old. Photo: Truls Alnes Antonsen / news State Attorney Frederik Ranke says PST believes that the group is a support group for Al Qaeda. The 23-year-old from Oslo, with Pakistani parents, says the radicalization started because he has felt an outsider all his life. He says he was thrown out of his family, and he also didn’t feel at home and accepted in Norway, even though he was born here. And that is where the radicalization process started, he believes himself. – I had a lack of belonging. I didn’t feel like I belonged to my family. I didn’t belong to Norwegian society either, he says. Difficult upbringing He believes that growing up in Oslo East he was perceived as different and threatening because of his skin colour. He mentions examples such as when he was a security guard, and had to take care of drunken Norwegians, who asked if it was sharia law that caused them to be thrown out. – If the average Norwegian does not accept me as a Norwegian, then what am I? asks the 23-year-old. news interviews the accused in one of the visiting rooms. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / news He says there was nothing in the radical Islamist message he was hooked on. It was more that he was accepted into the group as someone who mattered. He describes it as an addiction. – I wasn’t hooked on the message, I was hooked on the belonging. There was a period when I was a neo-Nazi, and it is very strange with the color of my skin. I was so desperate to be accepted, he says. He summarizes what he believes was his problem. – I was willing to say anything, do anything, to find a group to which I felt a sense of belonging. Recipes The indictment is on nine pages. The prosecution believes he was behind seven magazines with calls to commit terrorism in Europe. According to the indictment, the magazines contained, among other things, religious quotations that legitimize terror against civilian “infidels”, including women and children. It also contained encouragement and legitimization of using poison, and chemical and biological weapons for acts of terrorism. The indictment concerns, among other things, the content of these journals. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / news According to the indictment, the short magazines contained, among other things, recipes on how to stab someone and how to make napalm. He is also charged with joining a group affiliated with Al Qaeda. Why he now regrets and pleads guilty, he believes he can thank Norwegian prisons for. – The key is simply that I was finally accepted by society, when I have spent the last year in custody. And that society was Norway. When I came to Norwegian prisons, I was treated well and correctly. I got medical help and psychological help. – It shows that Norway wants to use its resources and energy on me. So that means they want me here. They want me to get better, and that has meant a lot to me, he says. – And I have finally come to the conclusion that I am actually Norwegian. – Why didn’t you put your cards on the table in the first interviews with PST? – It is because I myself did not realize that what I had done was illegal. And at the same time, I repressed a lot. As I said, I felt in a drunken state, I was accepted. When I came out of it, I became more sober. Prosecutor: – A repentant or calculating sinner State Attorney Frederik G. Ranke says the charges are very serious. – We have a nine-page indictment with several gross incitements to terrorism from a person we now understand will plead guilty. But we have not yet heard his explanation about the confession. – What do you think about the credibility of what he is now saying? – We must hear his explanation first. He has at least acknowledged some facts. But his explanation will show whether he is a penitent or a calculating sinner. The indictment is nine pages long. He is charged with incitement to terrorism and for being part of Al Qaeda. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / news – The fact that he pleads guilty, what does that mean for sentencing? – Normally, a confession, as long as it comes before the main hearing, will have a certain weight in the mitigating direction. Here it comes very late, and the police have good evidence which means that you are not dependent on his explanation. It is clear that it should count for a lot, but we need to hear his explanation first, and to what extent he regrets it. – He himself says that being an outsider in Norway contributes to radicalisation. What do you think about it? – We know that he was exposed to a very bad upbringing, and must have had a difficult time. But case law shows that in serious criminal cases little importance is attached to such difficult, individual circumstances, says Ranke. Was offended in a case of honor violence In 2020, the 23-year-old was offended in a case of violence in close relationships, where honor was, according to the verdict, an important motive. The 23-year-old’s questioning helped to get the father convicted, although he retracted much of what he had said in questioning during the trial. news followed the police’s investigation into the case for a year, and made the documentary “The difficult honour”. The father of the family was convicted of mental and physical abuse of his sons and his wife, and two of his nieces. He is also convicted of witness tampering. He received five years in prison. The father has completely denied the allegations of violence, and has said that honor has no meaning in his culture. His appeal was unsuccessful. Jasmina Holten is the police’s only expert on honor crime investigations. Here she teaches experienced investigators on the master’s course at the police academy. Photo: Gunhild Hjermundrud / news The police’s head of investigation in the case, Jasmina Holten, says it is very sad that it has ended with a terrorist charge for one of the sons in the family. – This was a resourceful boy who we believed would succeed in his studies despite a difficult upbringing. – Do you think there could be a connection between the 23-year-old’s radicalisation, and growing up with his father where, according to the judgement, honor was an important element? – As the head of the investigation in the abuse case, I would say that there was no doubt that the 23-year-old’s childhood bore the mark of honor-related violence with a background in collectivist and traditional mentality. And that the father carried out the violence against the children in a religious context. – The father legitimized the violence with Islam as a justification, in order to achieve religious discipline in the aggrieved, among them the 23-year-old. – What was your impression of the 23-year-old when you investigated the domestic violence case? – My impression was that he was resourceful and very brave. He took a big risk in reporting violence from his father and standing up for his younger siblings, but at the same time his absolute loyalty to the last moment was with his father and family. Holten says she hopes his story can help other children and young people who may be at risk of violence in close relationships, and vulnerable to being radicalised. – In a preventive context, his story will help other young people who grow up in such conditions. Violence in close relationships is a serious problem in our society, but the vast majority do not go as far as the defendant has done, says Holten. Defender: – The collaboration with PST should be important. The 23-year-old’s defender, Bendik Falch-Koslung, believes his client has an important story to tell. The 23-year-old’s defender is Bendik Falch-Koslung. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / news – His story can be preventive. To prevent others from ending up in the same situation, where the need for belonging in a group becomes so strong that one can enter into extreme ideologies, that is the essence of his story. It might help others, says Koslung. He says his client must expect a conviction and several years behind bars. – But the confession and the cooperation with the PST should be important for sentencing, says Koslung. The 23-year-old is excited ahead of Monday’s trial. He has also been dreading this interview with news, which he has nevertheless agreed to. – What is your motive for appearing at this interview? – It is primarily for my mental health. That I have to start somewhere to repay the negative I have done. – You have admitted that you lied in court, in the case against your father in 2020, so that he would not be convicted. Why should we believe you this time? – It was in a different context, because then I was under pressure, and could not go against my family, he says. The 23-year-old says he expects a conviction, and that after completing his sentence he wants to help others with de-radicalisation from extreme political groups.
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– Was also a neo-Nazi for a period – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
