Former gang leader and radical Islamist Arfan Bhatti is back on trial in Oslo, charged this time with being the mastermind behind the terrorist attack on Oslo’s Pride celebrations three years ago. Two people were killed and several wounded when another Islamist started shooting with a weapon believed to have been acquired with Bhatti’s help.

Bhatti, who was in Pakistan at the time, denies guilt, but police and their intelligence agency PST claim they have evidence that he planned the Pride attack and provided various assistance to the gunman, Zaniar Matapour, who’s now serving a minimum 30-year prison term. Bhatti is also charged with proposing a terrorist attack on the Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad and against the family of former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, now Norway’s finance minister.

He was extradited to Norway in May of last year and has been in custody ever since. He appeared in court on Tuesday with short hair and almost clean-shaven, a far cry from his years with a long beard as an Islamist. After a lengthy opening statement on Wednesday, in which he admitted to having “a gangster mentality” in his youth, he then tried to excuse his years of crime and violence, which included firing shots at a synagogue in Oslo.

Bhatti claimed he has nothing against homosexuals, had “mingled with them” on earlier occasions and had only had sporadic contact with Matapour over the years. Several weeks have been set aside for his trial.

NewsinEnglish.no staff