The mental condition of the perpetrators of the archery attack that killed five people in Norway on Wednesday is doubtful. According to the Norwegian authorities, he is now supported by the health service, and his attack is marked by a “terrorist act”, but this does not rule out the possibility of mental disorders.
It was announced on Friday (October 15) that the man who admitted that he was the perpetrator of the fatal archery attack in Kongsberg in southeastern Norway on October 13 was handed over to the health service.
Prosecutor Ann Allen Swan Mathiassen told AFP: “After evaluating his health, he was taken care of by the health service on Thursday night.”
The suspicion looms over Espen Andersen Bråthen’s mental condition, so his criminal responsibility is the Danish suspected of Islamic radicalization. He admitted to killing 5 people and wounding 3 others in Kongsberg in southeastern Norway on Wednesday. live.
Bråthen began his psychiatric assessment on Thursday, and his conclusion is expected to take several months.
The judge will rule on his pre-trial detention on Friday, without the suspect present. The authorities requested detention for four weeks, of which the first two were in solitary confinement. Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen said that if a positive decision is made, he will not be imprisoned, but the doctor will be responsible.
They claimed that although these attacks bear the stigma of “terrorism”, the Norwegian authorities did not rule out the possibility of mental disorders.
“There is no doubt that, on the surface, the act itself indicates that this may be a terrorist act, but now it is important that the investigation progresses and we clarify the suspect’s motives,” said Hans Sver Sjovo, head of PST security. Elder said Thursday.
“He is a man who has traveled back and forth in the healthcare system for a period of time,” he said.
Bråthen has been reported as a result of radicalization in the past. He converted to Islam a few years ago and admitted during interrogation that he had launched an attack, especially holding a bow and arrow.
“Never smile”
PST “knows” the suspect, and PST is particularly responsible for Norway’s counter-terrorism, but there are few details on this issue.
“There used to be people worried about radicalization,” police officer Ole Bradrup Saverud said. He said these concerns can be traced back to 2020 and before and led to follow-up actions by the police.
According to Norwegian media reports, Bråthen has been the target of two court rulings in the past: last year’s ban on visiting two close family members after threatening to kill one of them, and robbery and purchase of marijuana in 2012.
Several media outlets also found a video of him in 2017, in which he can be seen expressing his beliefs in a threatening tone. “I am a messenger. I came up with a warning: “Is this really what you want? “(…) Testify that I am a Muslim,” he declared.
According to the police, Bråthen was probably acting alone. He killed four women and a man between the ages of 50 and 70 in several places in Kongsberg, about 80 kilometers west of Oslo.
A neighbor, who asked not to be named, described him as an unfriendly person with a burly figure and short hair. “Never smiles, there is no expression on his face,” he told AFP, adding that he was “always alone” seeing him.
In the past, Norway has repeatedly thwarted planned Islamic attacks.
But the country has suffered two far-right attacks in the past decade, including the attack by Anders Behring Breivik on July 22, 2011.
Agence France-Presse