When Norway's biggest ever murder trial opened in Oslo last Monday, Anders Behring Breivik marched into the courtroom and shot his right arm out in a disturbing yet rather pathetic clenched-fist Nazi-style salute.
Inga Bejer Engh's reaction was typical: her blond hair swinging above the white necktie and black gown worn by prosecution lawyers, she stood up, walked forward and in an utterly disarming gesture, shook hands with the killer. He responded with a weak smile.
Blue-eyed and doll-like, Bejer Engh looks almost too unworldly to be leading the prosecution case against the man who carried out one of Europe's worst acts of violence since the Second World War. It is an appearance that deceives. Behind the state prosecutor's cool facade there is clearly a woman driven by an iron conviction in the Scandinavian approach to crime and punishment so often derided by outsiders as "too lenient".
In comments before the trial, Bejer Engh let it be known that she was proud to be part of the prosecution team. "It will give me an opportunity to show our humane system of justice to the rest of the world," she told reporters. » | Tony Paterson | Saturday, April 21, 2012
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