April 01, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1429

OSLO, March 31: Norway’s first ever ‘organised terrorism’ trial opened here on Monday, with three men accused of shooting at a synagogue and planning attacks against the US and Israeli embassies in Oslo.

The lead defendant, Arfan Q. Bhatti, a 30-year-old Norwegian of Pakistani origin, stands charged with firing an automatic weapon at the Oslo synagogue on September 17, 2006, along with 29-year-old Ibrahim Oezbabacan.

Bhatti and a third man, Andreas Bog Kristiansen, 28, also stand accused of planning attacks on the synagogue and on US and Israeli embassies in Oslo.

The alleged embassy attacks were foiled after police learned of the plans through electronic surveillance.

All three defendants — the first to be tried under new laws on organised terrorism introduced in Norway after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US — have pled not guilty to the charges.

“I am not a terrorist,” Bhatti told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK before the trial opened.

Bhatti, who has been detained since September, 2006, insisted he had not been involved in the attack on the synagogue.

He did not deny however making aggressive statements about the US and Israeli embassies but, according to his lawyer John Christian Elden, his comments were made lightly and were not concrete threats.

“There is a long way between fleeting thoughts and in practice,” Elden said as the trial opened.

“This is not a case of terrorism,” he said.

Some 80 witnesses are expected to be heard at the trial.—AFP