- Title: Police admit recieving tip about Norway mosque shooter a year earlier
- Date: 12th August 2019
- Summary: OSLO, NORWAY (AUGUST 12, 2019) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SUSPECT PHILIP MANSHAUS AND LAWYER ENTER COURT ROOM
- Embargoed: 26th August 2019 16:29
- Keywords: mosque shooting suspect Philip Manshaus stepsister court hearing anti-immigrant views PST defence lawyer
- Location: OSLO AND BAERUM, NORWAY
- City: OSLO AND BAERUM, NORWAY
- Country: Norway
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions
- Reuters ID: LVA001ARWYGJR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Norwegian police security service, PST, admitted on Monday (August 12) it had received a tip-off last year about the man suspected of shooting at people inside a Norwegian mosque but decided not to launch an investigation at the time.
The admission by the PST, which monitors and investigates extremist threats, came hours after the 21-year old mosque suspect Philip Manshaus appeared in an Oslo court with black eyes and wounds on his face and neck.
PST will now explore whether Manshaus, who is also accused of killing his step sister, had links to any domestic or foreign extremist networks, although investigators have said they believed he acted alone in the attack.
Any formal charges in the case and a trial to decide whether Manshaus is guilty or not, are likely to still be months away.
A judge gave police permission to hold Manshaus in custody for an initial four weeks while he is investigated on suspicion of murder and breach of anti-terrorism law, the court's ruling later showed.
Manshaus, who briefly smiled at photographers, does not admit to any crime, his lawyer Unni Fries said.
He did not speak while reporters were present and has so far declined to talk to the police.
Eyewitnesses said Manshaus entered the al-Noor Islamic Centre with several guns, but was overpowered by a 65-year-old member of the mosque, who managed to wrestle away his weapons in the fight that followed.
A few hours after the mosque attack, police discovered the body of a young woman at what they said was the suspect's address. Police later said she was his stepsister.
Manshaus, whose home is near the mosque just outside the Norwegian capital, had expressed far-right, anti-immigrant views before the attack, police said earlier.
Online postings under Manshaus' name, made shortly before the attack, expressed admiration for the massacre at two New Zealand mosques in March by a suspected right-wing extremist, in which more than 50 people were killed. Reuters could not independently verify that the postings were made by Philip Manshaus.
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