Arfan Bhatti was finally sent to Norway after a long time of negotiations with the Pakistani authorities.
According to NRK, there was a large price tag to get the accused home, and they have spent NOK 2.6 million, police communications adviser Siv Alsén tells NRK.
In comparison, the King’s journey home cost just over two million Norwegian kroner.
It is the flight to Bhatti that is the biggest expenditure item. Around 1.6 million was the price tag on the private plane that was chartered to fly Bhatti to Norway.
In addition, the police have spent around NOK one million on travel costs for their employees since 2022. The police have been to Pakistan on three occasions since the attack in Oslo on 25 June 2022.
The last time they traveled there, at the turn of January/February 2024, they tried to interrogate Arfan Bhatti, made technical seizures, and interviewed witnesses from other people in the country, it emerged in the trial against Zaniar Matapour, who is charged with the terrorist attack.
It was on Friday 3 May that Bhatti was on his way to Norway, both charged with complicity in terrorism and as a witness in the case against Zaniar Matapour in the Oslo district court.