Norway expelled him in 2021. Four years later, Mansour Echine, now in his twenties, is standing trial on three counts of attempted murder following the shooting at Tveita Shopping Centre. The Moroccan was able to return for one reason: He holds Spanish citizenship, and as this means that he is an EEA citizen, the entry ban was worthless.
Oslo District Court decided on 21 July to keep the 28-year-old in custody until the main hearing on 30 September. He is charged with three counts of attempted murder and aggravated unlawful possession of a firearm following the shooting at the shopping centre in Tveita, Oslo.
The Public Prosecutors in Eastern Norway issued the indictment on 15 May. The defendant has been held on remand since the day after the shooting, 22 July 2025 – in other words, for almost a year.
The shots were fired inside a café at the centre on Saturday, 19 July last year. According to the indictment, Echine fired shots at three people. One man was hit and seriously injured, but his injuries were not life-threatening. The defendant admits the factual circumstances, but not intent to kill, and has suggested self-defence. The following day, he turned himself in to the police.
Expelled – and back
The man is a Moroccan with Spanish citizenship, and has strong ties to Morocco, where he supports his mother and siblings.
Norway had already thrown him out once. In the autumn of 2020, he was issued summary fines repeatedly within a short period, including for drugs and theft. He spent two weeks in custody before being transported out of the country in March 2021 and expelled with a two-year entry ban.
But an entry ban does not stop an EEA citizen. His Spanish citizenship gave him the full right to return as soon as the ban expired. From May 2024, he was once again legally resident in Norway. Just over a year later, the shots rang out at Tveita.
‘Strong incentive to abscond’
It is precisely his ‘thin’ ties to Norway that are the reason the court is now keeping him in custody for an unusually long period. Detention until the main hearing means more than ten weeks – far longer than the normal four-week limit.
The court points to the risk of absconding. Mansour grew up in Spain and has family in Morocco. He has no children and no close family in Norway. If convicted in accordance with the indictment, he faces a lengthy unconditional prison sentence – the Supreme Court has set the level at six to nine years for attempted murder.
– The seriousness of the case thus gives the accused a strong incentive to evade prosecution, the ruling states.
The court concludes that ‘all things considered, relatively little ties the accused to Norway’.