Ali Namdar Charged Over Strømmen Restaurant Hand Grenade Attack
Norwegian authorities have charged 21-year-old Ali Namdar, an alleged senior figure linked to the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot, with ordering a hand grenade attack on a sushi restaurant in Strømmen. Police and prosecution officials announced the formal charge as a trial opened for two teenagers accused of carrying out the October 6, 2025, bombing. Kripos confirmed the development to TV 2, stating that investigators believe Namdar acted as the mastermind behind the explosion.
Encrypted Messages Reveal Order and Citing of ‘Joker’ Alias
During court proceedings at Romerike and Glåmdal District Court, prosecutors presented encrypted messages sent via the Signal application to the teenager who carried out the bombing. The sender used the display name “Joker,” writing, Bro don’t worry grenade is not going to be a big explosion,
and instructing the youth to text back upon arriving home. While police investigators noted that the unique user ID for the account remains missing, an investigator testified that the “Joker” moniker appears in multiple similar cases sharing the same operational pattern and mastermind role, according to TV 2.
Teenagers Face Trial While Denying Gang Involvement
The trial involves two youths, aged 16 and 17, who took the bench in district court on Wednesday. The 16-year-old, who was 15 at the time of the incident, admitted to throwing the hand grenade into the restaurant where four people were present, but denied charges under Norway’s mafia paragraph concerning organized crime. According to NRK, the teen testified that he received 35,000 Norwegian kroner for the job after being handed the explosive near Østensjøvannet in Oslo. No injuries were reported from the explosion, though it caused structural damage to the floor and entrance. The 17-year-old admitted to negligent complicity in the attack. The 16-year-old described breaking the restaurant’s window and later throwing a hand grenade against it as extreme requests from someone in the Signal group, explaining that he felt pressured to carry out the acts out of fear of what might happen to him if he refused. Testimony also detailed threats, vandalism, and weapons involving the accused youths, with a victim giving tearful testimony about how the incident continues to affect her. Police initially stated their hypothesis that the Strømmen grenade attack was ordered by others.
Namdar Faces Multiple Charges Across Norway and Sweden
Beyond the Strømmen restaurant bombing, Namdar faces multiple serious charges across Norway and Sweden. Police connect him to a separate hand grenade detonation in Pilestredet in Oslo, shooting incidents in Sarpsborg and Høybråten, and a deprivation of liberty case involving a man moved from Oslo to Denmark, as detailed by TV 2 and Aftenposten. Prosecuting attorney Andreas Kruszewski stated in court on Wednesday that the cases are connected to a deprivation of liberty from Oslo to Denmark in 2025, where a man who owed money and had ties to a criminal network was deprived of his liberty. Authorities also charge him with human trafficking, alleging he exploited minors for violent assignments. In addition, Namdar is charged with several conspiracies to commit murder—including connections to the Pilestredet grenade attack—and numerous attempts to enter into murder conspiracies where the violent assignment was not carried out. Namdar was apprehended in Morocco in September following an international manhunt led by Europol.
Unresolved Legal Questions in the Foxtrot Network Investigation
Investigators continue to examine the full extent of the Foxtrot network’s recruitment of Norwegian minors for criminal tasks. While prosecutors maintain that the defendants acted on behalf of an organized criminal network, defense counsel and the accused teenagers dispute the organized crime charges. It remains unclear how Namdar will plead to the latest indictments, and whether prosecutors will recover the missing digital identifiers for the “Joker” Signal account to definitively link the alias to the 21-year-old suspect.
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