Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Norwegian Lawyer Charged in Attack on Asylum Center

Norway’s asylum crisis is heating up, and things are getting interesting: a lawyer has been charged for allegedly shooting up an asylum center near Oslo. According to today’s Aftenposten:

Attorney denies firing shots at asylum center

Police were holding a well-known attorney in custody on Tuesday, after charging him with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at an asylum center west of Oslo earlier this summer. The attorney denies he’s the sniper who severely injured a 16-year-old refugee from Somalia.

The shots were fired with a hunting rifle from this hilltop across from the asylum center in Hvalstad, west of Oslo.

The sniper incident at the asylum center in Hvalstad, Asker Township, shocked the local community and police have suspected all along that it was motivated by racism.

Police arrested the 50-year-old attorney late Monday, after finally finding the rifle used in the attack on the asylum center in Hvalstad, in Asker Township. The rifle was found after 35 soldiers from the Royal Guards intensively searched the hilltop near the asylum center from which the shots were fired.
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The rifle is registered to the attorney, who, in accordance with press practices in Norway, isn’t being publicly identified. The police already had him as a suspect, believing him to be the same man who a witness has said hitched a ride with her shortly after the shooting on July 18.

When the warrant went out for the attorney in connection with the refugee center shooting, he was found to already be sitting in police custody in Ski, south of Oslo. He’d been arrested there over the weekend, after going amok at a motorcycle gathering and threatening passersby with a knife.

The attorney underwent questioning last evening and through the night, and claims he had nothing to do with the sniper attack in Hvalstad. He claims his rifle must have been stolen.

While police suspect racism motivated the sniper attack, the attorney has a record of representing minors in juvenile delinquency cases and he also has worked for the United Nations in troubled areas overseas. His name is on a Justice Ministry list of persons who can be sent to help in such areas of conflict outside Norway: Just last spring he was named as a member of a government resource panel.

He’s most recently been working in his own law firm but earlier worked for a major firm in Oslo. Newspaper VG reported that former colleagues described him as a “kind, interested and clever” attorney.

Newspaper Aftenposten, however, reported that friends say he’d been suffering from psychological problems. Police say they will, as is routine, evaluate his mental condition.

Newspaper VG also reported that the attorney recently had bragged at a party that he had fired the shots at the asylum center. He was intoxicated at the time, and withdrew his comments when he sobered up.

Officials at the asylum center praised the police investigation and expressed relief that they’d arrested a suspect. The teenager who was shot continues to recover after several rounds of emergency surgery and is said to be surrounded by a solid support network.


Previous posts about Norway’s asylum crisis:

2008 Aug 5 Evicted to Make Room for Asylum-Seekers
    7 The Asylum Crisis in Norway
    15 A Lethal Family Reunification
    18 Pleading Insanity
    18 An Invitation to Game the System
    23 Norway: Asylum Capital of the World
    25 Asylum Flood Encounters Popular Resistance

Hat tip: TB.

9 comments:

El said...

and so it begins. note his 'mental distress,' the same excuse used whenever a palestinian bulldozes some jews. now why would he have been so mentally distressed? sounds like a man with an intimate understanding of how his country was falling apart.

not exactly a criminal mastermind though. there are surely better ways of doing this kind of thing, hypothetically speaking.

Afonso Henriques said...

Well, in Norway he is called attorney, here we would call it a crazy homeless with some education and a rifle...

Dear God...

Fjordman said...

Meanwhile, Oslo's Municipal Executive Board has apologized to foreign tourists for beggars, prostitutes and drug addicts. I guess that's good, but I do notice they don't apologize to the natives, who have to endure this on a daily basis.

Afonso Henriques said...

Well Fjordman, I am a little more hard core. I am sick of apologees, it's time for the authorities to eliminate those kind of people, or at least part, that is, do what they can for it.

And when I say "elimanate" I do not mean kill. Of course I mean putting them out of the city, or at least, the main local atractions. Their presence only is degrading enough.

But again, that's just me. Who look up tp Dubai...

laine said...

This lone looney has set back the anti-immigration cause when Norway was already at the tipping point. The Somali invasion won't be stopped now.

Instead, more funds will be squandered on bludgeoning the native population on their "racism" and bringing in more drones, money better spent even by humanitarian standards IN THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN TO HELP FAR MORE PEOPLE.

Trying to remake round holes and square pegs to fit each other is one of the most wasteful exercises for limited funds.

Armor said...

"This lone looney has set back the anti-immigration cause when Norway was already at the tipping point. The Somali invasion won't be stopped now."

I would think that kind of incident increases pressure to stop immigration.

Sir Henry Morgan said...

All I know is, next time I'm up in front of the beak - and there almost certainly will be a next time - I want this man as my lawyer.

Knife trouble at a biker meet, shooting at Somalis ... I like him already - he doesn't mess around with trivialities.

Charlemagne said...

The man must have been reading my mind. Or he could be a gamer.

Anonymous said...

I guess decent people are supposed to pretend to be outraged by this, but whether he has mental problems or not, my reaction has nothing to do with outrage, more like, it's about time someone did something, even if he's crazy and the victim was innocent. Bad me, I just have serious compassion fatigue.