A far-right extremist in Norway has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing his Chinese-born stepsister and then opening fire on an Oslo mosque.
Philip Manshaus, 22, started shooting at the Al-Noor Islamic Centre in Baerum last August during Eid al-Adha celebrations. But he was tackled by heroic worshippers who wrestled away his guns and prevented him from seriously hurting anybody.
The sentence, given by the Oslo District Court, is the longest jail term under Norwegian law.
Manshaus told the court he regretted not having caused more damage. He confessed to the acts but called them “emergency justice.”
On August 10 last year, Manshaus killed his 17-year-old adopted stepsister, Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, by shooting her four times with a hunting rifle at their home in Oslo.
He then drove to the nearby mosque, where he fired four shots at the glass door. No one was seriously injured and he was overpowered by one of the three worshippers at the mosque.
Judge Annika Lindstroem of the Oslo District Court said Manshaus had plans to kill as many people as possible and set the mosque on fire.
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She said he believed that “Europe is under attack from people of ethnic origin other than his own” and that “the white race is on the brink of extinction.”
The judge told the court he was mentally sane at the time of the attack. Investigators said they had found a photo of Adolf Hitler on his phone.
Lindstroem also said Manshaus was inspired by shootings in March 2019 in New Zealand, where a gunman targeted two mosques, killing 51 people.
