Tue, May 21, 2013 23:35:36 PM
Bangkok Post
Tue, May 21, 2013 23:35:36 PM
Bangkok Post
OSLO -- Judges will announce on Aug 24 if mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is sane enough for prison, as the 10-week trial of the man responsible for the worst peacetime massacre in Norwegian history ended on Friday.
Breivik, who killed 77 people in twin attacks on July 22 last year, was unapologetic to the end of the hearing, earlier telling his defence lawyer to demand that he be set free.The trial ended with a walkout by families of Breivik's victims in protest against his attempts to justify the massacre.As he took the stand to explain why he killed 77 people last July, 30 people filed out of the courtroom."He has a right to talk. We have no duty to listen," said Christian Bjelland, a member of a victims' support group.Breivik's statement was not broadcast by local media."The attacks on July 22 were a pre-emptive strike," Breivik told the court. "I can’t plead guilty. I acted on the principle of necessity on behalf of my culture, my people and my country. I ask to be acquitted of the charges."The 33-year-old Oslo native has been subjected to two mental evaluations, the first of which found him insane and unfit for prison, and a second which deemed him to be fit.Breivik, who is fighting to be found sane in order to further his political arguments, has said the murders were "gruesome but necessary" to fight multiculturalism and the spread of Islam."If you accept my plea of cultural and political necessity you will send a shockwave around Europe," Breivik told the judges. "History will tell whether they sentenced a person that tried to stop the evil of the times."In the trial’s great paradox, the prosecution on Friday recommended that the confessed murderer be given compulsory care as reasonable doubt existed over whether he could be held accountable.If found sane, Breivik may be sentenced to 21 years in jail with five-year extensions for as long as he’s deemed a danger. An insanity ruling could place him in a secure mental hospital indefinitely.Judges Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen and Arne Lyng and the lay judges would consider the evidence before delivering the sentence on Aug 24.Prosecutors Svein Holden and Inga Bejer Engh stuck to their initial recommendation that Breivik be found criminally insane, saying that either way he would have an "unlimited" sentence imposed on him."In our opinion, it’s worse that a person who's psychotic is sent to preventative detention than a person who’s not psychotic is sent to mental health care," Holden said.Geir Lippestad, Breivik’s attorney, in his closing argument, rebutted the prosecution, saying his client was driven by "extremism" and not by a need to commit violence. It's just as bad to place a sane person in treatment, he said.Three out of four Norwegians said Breivik is sane enough to be sent to a normal prison, NRK reported yesterday. Only one in 10 of the 1,000 Norwegians surveyed by the market researcher Norstat said Breivik is so ill that he should be sentenced to compulsory psychiatric care, the state-owned broadcaster said.Breivik, who’s said he won’t appeal if he’s found sane, is a "very extreme, odd and malfunctioning perso", said Cathrine Groendahl, a lawyer representing 10 of his victims."It’s more likely he’s narcissistic with an antisocial personality disorder than psychotic."Breivik last July killed 69 people -- some as young as 14 -- at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoeya, having earlier detonated a car bomb by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office in Oslo, taking eight lives."It's important he's seen in the context of the right wing movements that inspire him," said Groendahl. "Pure evil and extreme, political motivation should not be defined as psychosis."The killer, who’s been indicted on two terror charges as well as murder, has said his actions were necessary to prevent war in Europe. He’s called his victims "traitors" to Norway and said "violent revolution" is the only way to overthrow "communist doctrines" that have taken over in many countries.Lara Rashid, who fled from Iraq in 1994 and was on Utoeya Island when her younger sister Bano was shot and killed, told the court that Breivik had failed in his goals."Bano did not die in vain," she told crying friends and relatives. "She fought for a multicultural Norway and at her funeral she showed that an imam and a priest can stand together."
