In Norway, an Oslo court convicted an Iranian-born Norwegian man of murder and terrorism over a deadly shooting rampage at a gay bar on June 25, 2022, during Pride celebrations, according to Yahoo! News.
Two people died, nine suffered gunshot wounds and 25 others were injured in the attack at the London Pub.
Zaniar Matapour, 45—described by police as a radicalized Islamist with a history of mental illness—stood trial.
Matapour will serve 30 years in prison, which could be extended indefinitely if he is deemed to continue to pose a threat to society, with a minimum detention time of 20 years. (The sentence is the longest possible under Norwegian law.) He was also ordered to pay approximately 112 million crowns ($10.6 million) to survivors and relatives of the victims.
“The attack undoubtedly targeted gay people,” the court said in its verdict. “The goal was both to kill as many gay people as possible and to instill fear in LGBTQ people more broadly,” according to Al Jazeera.
Matapour’s lawyer, Marius Dietrichson, wanted an acquittal, claiming his client had been provoked to carry out the attack by a Danish intelligence agent who was pretending to be a high-ranking member of ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).