A 22-year old Norwegian man is facing 21 years of jail time after he was accused of murdering his stepsister and carrying out a shooting at a mosque in Oslo, Norway.
Norwegian prosecutors said on Wednesday that the suspect, Philip Manshaus, will be locked behind bars after admitting that he killed his 17-year old stepsister and opened fire in the Al-Noor mosque in Oslo on August 10, 2019, while clad in a bulletproof vest, multiple weapons, and a helmet with a camera strapped to it.
Three individuals who were worshipping that time were found, one of them, an elderly woman, was injured.
The suspect admitted to the fact that he was preparing to kill “as many Muslims as possible” and that it was a “necessity” to ensure the “survival of the white race.”
Manshaus was said to be overpowered by a 65-year-old man.
Manshaus said he was inspired by the attacks in Christchurch in New Zealand in March 2019, when Brenton Tarrant claimed 51 lives in shootings at two mosques.
Tarrant, in turn, has said that he was inspired by Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a truck bomb blast near government offices in Oslo and a shooting spree at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya in July 2011, who had hatreds of multiculturalism.
Meanwhile, the body of Manshaus’ stepsister, Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, who was adopted by his father’s girlfriend from China, was recovered in their home. The victim sustained four gunshots.
The suspect made an OK gesture with his hand before taking his seat during his trial.
“He seems likely to be dangerous for a very long time,” said prosecutor Johan Overberg in his closing statement read out during a court hearing.
He said that the murder of Ihle-Hansen was a “planned execution” with a “racist motive.”
