Norway’s Breivik criticises insanity report
During trial in Oslo, confessed mass killer says report declaring him insane is based on “evil fabrications”.
Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has criticised a psychiatric report declaring him insane as being based on “evil fabrications” meant to portray him as irrational and unintelligent.
“It is not me who is described in that report,” said Breivik who admitted to killing 77 people in bomb and shooting attacks on July 22 last year, said in court on Wednesday.
Sounding irritated, the 33-year-old Norwegian accused the two psychiatrists who declared him psychotic of deciding on the diagnosis prematurely, saying their judgment was clouded by their emotional response to the attacks.
“They lack expertise in evaluating violent political activists,” Breivik said.
A second examination found him to be sane.
The five-judge panel that is trying Breivik on terrorism charges for the attacks is to consider both reports.
Breivik has admitted to bombing Oslo’s government district, killing at least eight people, and then carrying out a shooting massacre at a Labour party youth camp on the island of Utoeya that left at least 69 people dead.
He says the attacks were “necessary” and that the victims had betrayed Norway by embracing immigration.
If found guilty, Breivik could face 21 years in prison, the maximum allowed under Norwegian law. That sentence could be extended in five-year terms if he is deemed to be a danger to society.
If he is declared insane, he would be committed to compulsory psychiatric care. In earlier statements he has described a sentence of closed psychiatric care to be “worse than death”.
‘Grounds for struggle’
After listening to testimony describing the injuries of the victims of the bomb in Oslo, Breivik showed no remose, saying that it was the governing Labour Party who should apologise.
He said he had hoped they would change policy on immigration after his attacks.
“But instead they continue in the same direction, so the grounds for struggle are unfortunately even more relevant now than before July 22,” Breivik said.
Earlier on Wednesday, relatives of victims sobbed in the courtroom as forensic experts presented autopsy reports of the victims, and a 26-year-old man who was hit by debris on the street outside the building and hospitalised for three weeks after the bombing recalled his ordeal.