ARFAN BHATTI'S COURT RE-TRIAL DELAYED FROM

UNCLAS OSLO 000713 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR DS, CA, S/CT, INR, DS/IP, EUR/NB COPENHAGEN, STOCKHOLM, LONDON FOR RSO AND LEGATT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC KCRM PTER PREL NO SUBJECT: ARFAN BHATTI'S COURT RE-TRIAL DELAYED FROM NOVEMBER 2009 TO MAY 2010 REF: OSLO 403 AND PREVIOUS ¶1. (SBU) Arfan Bhatti, who was convicted of grave vandalism in the shooting of the Oslo synagogue in 2006 and was also the accused ringleader of an alleged plot against the U.S. and Israeli embassies (Reftel and previous),was supposed to be re-tried on November 5 and 6 in the Court of Appeals in Oslo on a separate, unrelated attempted murder charge which was overruled by Norway's Supreme Court in June 2009. On November 5, Embassy staff called the court to confirm the start of the re-trial, only to find that the judge had decided to postpone the trial to May 18, 2010. The reason given for this sudden and significant delay was that the judge decided the trial requires four days, not two as originally planned, and that the first available time slot to accommodate four days in a row was May 18, 2010. The re-trial had already been delayed at least twice -- from August to October, and then to November 5. ¶2. (SBU) Embassy RSO and RAO spoke separately to their contacts in Norway's Police Security Service (PST) November 9 and 10. PST reported to them that, with this delay, Bhatti is now no longer required to report in person daily to the PST, as he has been required to do since his release from prison in June. Instead, he now falls under the Oslo Police department's jurisdiction. PST said that this change was due to the fact that the court had determined that under Norwegian law, Bhatti is not considered part of a terrorist organization, but rather as purely criminal. Finally, while Norwegian authorities have until now been in possession of Bhatti's passport, PST contacts said they anticipate Bhatti's lawyer will try to have the passport returned to him for the period leading up to the new re-trial date in May. Despite these developments, PST assured RSO and RAO that they have a good plan in place to track Bhatti, if only indirectly, at least during the context of the upcoming POTUS visit. ¶3. (SBU) Post expects to receive additional information on this and other matters from PST in the form of PST's overall threat assessment for the upcoming POTUS visit. We will follow up with PST and other relevant elements of the Government of Norway as warranted based on that threat assessment, in close coordination with the Secret Service. WHITE