A judge is due to rule this Friday on the pre-trial detention of Espen Andersen Bråthen.
The 37-year-old man confessed to being the author of a deadly bow attack in Norway, according to the authorities the marks of a terrorist act.
The emotion remains high in Kongsberg, a peaceful city in the south-east of the Scandinavian country, where residents gathered Thursday evening to pray with candles, 24 hours after the attack which left five dead and three injured.
“We are a small community and we need to be there for each other,” said Kristine Johansen, a 29-year-old teacher.
Described by police as a 37-year-old Danish citizen who converted to Islam and reported for radicalization, Bråthen admitted during questioning that he carried out the attack, including a bow and arrows, before being arrested.
"We would like to have him in pre-trial detention for at least four weeks," said prosecutor in charge of the case, Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen.
Terrorism or mental disorder
The Kongsberg court must decide this Friday morning, but probably without presentation of the assailant.
According to the police, Bråthen does not oppose his imprisonment, allowing a simplified procedure.
In light in particular of the modus operandi, the fact that the suspect knocked blindly and that he was the object of alerts on a possible radicalization, the track of Islamist terrorism seems privileged.
"There is no doubt that the act itself has appearances which suggest that it may be a terrorist act, but it is now important for the investigation to advance and for the suspect's motives to be clarified", PST head of Norwegian intelligence, Hans Sverre Sjøvold, said at a press conference.
VIDEO.
Archery attack in Norway: suspect is radicalized Dane
The authorities also do not rule out the possibility of mental disorders.
“He's a person who has been going back and forth through the health care system for a while,” Sverre Sjøvold said.
According to prosecutor Svane Mathiassen, Bråthen began undergoing a psychiatric assessment on Thursday, but findings are expected to take several months.
The suspect "is known" to the PST, which is particularly responsible for counterterrorism, but few details have been provided.
"There have been fears related to radicalization previously," said police official Ole Bredrup Saeverud.
These fears dated back to 2020 and before, and had resulted in police follow-up.
"Never a smile, no expression on the face"
According to Norwegian media reports, Bråthen has been the target of two court rulings in the past: a ban last year from visiting two close family members after threatening to kill one of them and a burglary and purchase of hashish in 2012. A video of him from 2017 was also unearthed by several media, where he is seen making a profession of faith in a threatening tone. “I am a messenger. I came up with a warning:
is this really what you want?
(…) Be a witness that I am a Muslim, ”he declares.
Bråthen, who most likely acted alone according to the police, killed four women and a man aged 50 to 70, in several places in Kongsberg, a small town with about 25,000 inhabitants where he resided, 80 km away. west of Oslo, the capital.
On condition of anonymity, a neighbor described him as an unfriendly person with a large build and cropped hair.
“Never a smile, no expression on his face,” he said, adding that he had seen him “always alone”.
Several planned Islamist attacks have been foiled in Norway in the past.
But the country has been bereaved by two far-right attacks over the past ten years, including that of July 22, 2011 by Anders Behring Breivik (77 killed).