Updated 28 Oct, 15:08
Norwegian prosecutors demanded 30 years of preventive detention for Arfan Bhatti on Wednesday, with a minimum term of 20 years, as his appeal case in Borgarting lagmannsrett nears its end.
The demand matches the sentence the 49-year-old Islamist received in Oslo tingrett in January. State prosecutors Sturla Henriksbø and Aud Kinsarvik announced the claim during their closing procedure, according to Bergens Tidende, VG and NRK.
Bhatti is charged with complicity in aggravated terrorism for assisting Zaniar Matapour in the attack on Oslo's gay community on the night of 25 June 2022. Two people were killed in the attack. After the attack, Bhatti allegedly proposed several other acts of terrorism in talks with a person he believed was linked to the IS group but who was in fact an agent for the Norwegian Intelligence Service.
"We believe a correct overall sentence for complicity in a serious act of terrorism and attempted terrorist conspiracy is 30 years in prison. There are no mitigating circumstances. There is no admission of guilt," Kinsarvik said.
She said a red thread ran through Bhatti's life from 2002 to today and that there was strong concern about the risk of repeat offences.
"I cannot see it any other way than that the risk of repetition is high," the state prosecutor said. "He has a high capacity for violence, a low threshold, few barriers, and he has the ability and will to influence and exploit others," she said, adding that he has a long-standing wish to harm Norwegian society through attacks on innocent, random people and on central figures in society.
Defence lawyer John Christian Elden said the defence is seeking a full acquittal. "We believe it has been made clear that no acts of complicity by Bhatti before the shooting at Per på Hjørnet have been proven," Elden told NTB. The defenders present their closing procedure on Thursday.