The 37-year-old man who confessed to being the author of a deadly archery attack in Norway was handed over to health services "
after an assessment of his condition,
" the prosecutor in charge of the case said on Friday. fueling questions about his mental health.
"
He was taken care of by the health services Thursday evening following an assessment of his state of health,
" prosecutor Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen told AFP.
Doubts hang over the mental health, and therefore the criminal responsibility, of Espen Andersen Bråthen, a Dane who admitted to having killed five people and having injured three others on Wednesday in Kongsberg (south-east) where he resides.
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Bråthen had started undergoing a psychiatric evaluation on Thursday, the conclusions of which are expected to take several months.
A judge is due to rule this Friday on his pre-trial detention of Bråthen, without the suspect's physical presence.
Authorities have requested four weeks' detention, the first two of which are in solitary confinement.
In the event of a positive decision, he would not be imprisoned but left under the responsibility of doctors, said the prosecutor.
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While the attacks bear the mark of a "
terrorist act
", they claim, the Norwegian authorities do not rule out the possibility of mental disorder either.
"
There is no doubt that the act itself has appearances which suggest that it may be a terrorist act, but it is now important that the investigation progress and that we clarify the motives of the suspect
", a PST security chief Hans Sverre Sjøvold said on Thursday.
"
He is a person who has been going back and forth in the health system for a while,
" he stressed, however.
