Suspect arrested over Islamist threat video

The suspect will appear in front of Skien district court in south-eastern Norway at 1pm on Friday.

The man, a Norwegian citizen with a Central American family background, was arrested at his home in the town at 11pm on Wednesday by officers from the Telemark police service and the domestic police intelligence agency, PTS.

He faces preliminary charges of threatening state officials and incitement to terrorism.

The suspect’s lawyer, John Christian Elden, said his client admitted to being behind the video but did not believe it contained any threats.

“He was not previously known to police, and he doesn't think he has done anything illegal, even though he admits that he’s the one who posted the video,” said Elden.

A link to the video was posted in the early hours of Tuesday morning in a Facebook group with 1,600 members called ‘Demonstrasjon: Norske soldater ut av Afghanistan’ [Demonstration: Norwegian soldiers out of Afghanistan]. The group’s aim is to gather protesters for a rally outside the Oslo parliament on Friday.

The number of group members has dropped to below 1,300 since the video appeared there.

In the video, images of Crown Prince Haakon, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre are accompanied by a song in Arabic that contains the words: “Oh Allah, destroy them, and let it be painful”.

The clip, which is just over four minutes long, also features pictures of Norwegian soldiers and injured children. It ends with the sound of an explosion and a picture of a Norwegian vehicle in flames.