3 indicted in Norwegian terror case

Three men have been indicted on charges connected with an attack on an Oslo synagogue or plotting to attack the U.S. or Israeli embassies in the Norwegian capital, the national prosecutor said Tuesday.

All charges related to the cases were dropped against a fourth man, said prosecutor Kristine Rise. He had been identified in earlier court rulings as 29-year-old Mohammed Adnan Nabi.

The others have also denied any wrongdoing, and their attorneys said the basis for the indictments was weak.

Arfan Bhatti, 30, was indicted on charges of firing gunshots at Norway's main synagogue in September 2006, for conspiring to commit a terror attack on the embassies and on other unrelated charges.

Andreas Bog Kristiansen, 27, was indicted with Bhatti on charges of plotting to use explosives or weapons to attack the U.S. or Israeli embassies, and conspiring to commit armed robbery. Ibrahim Oezbabacan, 29, was indicted, with Bhatti, for either firing or being an accomplice to 13 shots being fired at the Oslo synagogue.

Rise said the indictment was made on Friday, but that she had declined to discuss it until she was certain it had been presented to all four suspects.

"Now I'm sure it has been, so I can comment," she said.

The charges were in part based on recordings from an electronic bug police planted in one suspect's car, in which some suspects allegedly discussed blowing up the embassies.

Police won a court order Monday to continue holding Bhatti _ who has been in detention since shortly after the synagogue shootings _ for eight more weeks. There two other suspects were released earlier.

No date had been set for the trial of the three suspects.