Anders Behring Breivik: History Will Exonerate Me
THE GUARDIAN: Victims' relatives walk out as trial ends with killer demanding to be set free and asking court to reject insanity claim

The trial of Anders Behring Breivik has ended with the confessed mass killer demanding to be set free and vowing that history would exonerate him for a bomb and gun rampage that killed 77 people.

As the self-styled anti-Muslim militant spoke for the last time in the 10-week proceedings, around 30 relatives of his victims walked out of the courtroom as he spoke.

In a rambling statement, Breivik lashed out at everything he perceived to be wrong with the world, from non-ethnic Norwegians representing the country in the Eurovision song contest to the sexually liberated lifestyle of the characters in the American TV show Sex and the City.

He also claimed fellow rightwing extremists were behind a small amount of explosives found outside a Swedish nuclear plant this week. The Swedish police spokesman Tommy Nyman had no comment, adding "especially not if he says it".

While some of Breivik's comments prompted laughter in the Oslo court, gravity returned when he reiterated his motive for bombing a government building in Oslo, killing eight, and hunting down teenagers at the Labour party's youth camp on Utøya island. Sixty-nine people died and dozens more were injured in one of the worst peacetime shooting massacres by a single gunman.

"History shows that you have to commit a small barbarism to prevent a bigger barbarism," the 33-year-old Norwegian said.

"The attacks on July 22 were preventive attacks to defend the indigenous Norwegian people," he said. "I therefore demand to be acquitted."

Breivik claims the governing Labour party has betrayed the country by accepting Muslim immigrants and must be stopped before turning Norway into what he called a "multiculturalist hell". » | Associated Press in Oslo | Friday, June 22, 2012

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Anders Behring Breivik Has 'Human Right' to Be Jailed: Defence
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik should be punished in prison for his brutal terror attacks last July, according to the killer's defence lawyer who pushed to overrule a recommendation that his his client should face "compulsory mental health care".

The defence's closing argument began the last session of the gruelling 10-week trial in which the Nordic nation has tried to come to terms with the worst atrocity in its post-war history.

"It is not violence which lies behind his acts, but political extremism," defence lawyer Geir Lippestad argued at the end of a speech in which he sought a "more lenient standard of proof on the question of sanity", for a case he said was "without precedent".

"The accused always benefits from reasonable doubt. When the accused wishes to be punished, then what?" he asked

"If we consider basic human rights, beginning with the fact that the accused has a radical political project that makes his actions pathological, then we could deprive him of his basic human rights: the right to be responsible for one's actions."

An insanity ruling would come as a bitter disappointment to the 33-year-old in his battle to ensure that his anti-Islamic ideology is not written off as the rantings of a madman.

Breivik has described treatment in a mental hospital as “a fate worse than death” and “the ultimate humiliation”, and has considerably toned down his original rhetoric about the Knights Templar movement to sway the judges.

Many fear that the killer will use the closing speech in the trial to once again expound his radical views, arguing that he should be seen as a hero for the atrocities he committed. » | Richard Orange | Friday, June 22, 2012

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Anders Behring Breivik Resists Insanity Claim by Prosecution
THE GUARDIAN: Prosecutors claim Norwegian is a delusional psychotic schizophrenic, but killer wants to be found sane

Norway is facing the prospect that Anders Behring Breivik could evade prison and live out his days in a specially constructed hospital after prosecutors asked judges in Oslo to rule him insane.

However, Breivik, who admits killing eight people in a bomb blast in the centre of Oslo before driving to nearby island Utøya and slaughtering 69 more, mostly teenage members of the Labour party youth wing, wants to be found sane.

If he gets his way he can be sentenced to 21 years in prison, with a provision to keep him longer if still considered dangerous. Crucially for Breivik, who claims to be part of a pan-European rightwing terror network called The Knights Templar, a jail sentence would also allow him to burnish his credentials as a political prisoner rather than be written off as a madman.

The self-styled anti-Islamic militant said his victims were legitimate targets in his battle against the "cultural-Marxists" encouraging an Islamic colonisation of Europe. (+ video) » | Mark Lewis in Oslo | Thursday, June 21, 2012

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Anders Behring Breivik Trial Hears Closing Statements
The prosecution in the trial of the Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has delivered its closing statement, calling for him to be sent to a mental institution instead of prison. The defence is likely to argue against a finding of insanity on Friday, the last day of the 10-week trial. Breivik is on trial for the murder of 77 people in a bombing and shooting massacre last summer

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Prosecutors Want Mass Killer Breivik Ruled Insane
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: OSLO (Reuters) - Prosecutors asked a Norwegian court on Thursday to declare far- right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik insane and commit him to a mental institution, in line with their original indictment.

Breivik, who admits to killing 77 people in twin attacks last year, most of them teenagers at a Labour Party summer camp, says he should be declared sane, but acquitted on grounds that he was defending the Norwegian people by fighting the supporters of Muslim immigration.

Court-appointed psychiatrists have come to opposing conclusions. One team declared Breivik a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic, while a second concluded that he most likely suffered from a narcissistic personality disorder but was not psychotic, and could therefore be held criminally responsible. » | Reuters | Thursday, June 21, 2012

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Anders Behring Breivik Trial Nears End with Closing Arguments
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The trial of Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway last July, enters the final stretch on Thursday with the prosecutors' call for him to be sent either to prison or to a mental hospital.

Prosecutors Svein Holden and Inga Bejer Engh are to begin presenting their much-awaited closing arguments at 1000 GMT, when they will reveal whether they want the court to find Breivik responsible or not for his actions.

They will base their request on psychiatric evaluations of the 33-year-old right wing extremist which have sharply contradicted each other.

In the formal indictment presented in March, in which Breivik was charged with "acts of terror", the two prosecutors called for him to be committed to psychiatric care but left the door open to change their minds if new information were to surface about his mental health.

They adopted that line based on the sole psychiatric evaluation that had been completed at the time which diagnosed Breivik as insane, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and therefore not responsible for his actions.

That conclusion caused an uproar in Norway, with many stunned to learn that the man who spent years secretly and meticulously planning his twin attacks could not be held responsible for his actions. » | Source: AFP | Thursday, June 21, 2012

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Aung San Suu Kyi Gives Nobel Speech in Norway, 21 Years Later


Read the article and watch more videos here | Laura Smith-Spark | CNN | Saturday, June 16, 2012
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Suu Kyi Accepts Nobel Peace Prize 21 Years Late
REUTERS.COM: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally accepted her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Saturday after spending a total of 15 years under house arrest and said full political freedom in her country was still a long way off.

"Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal," Suu Kyi said in her acceptance speech during her first trip to Europe in nearly 25 years.

"Hostilities have not ceased in the far north; to the west, communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just several days before I started out the journey that has brought me here today."

Suu Kyi, the Oxford University-educated daughter of General Aung San, Myanmar's assassinated independence hero, advocated caution about transformation in Myanmar, whose quasi-civilian government continues to hold political prisoners.

"There still remain such prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten," Suu Kyi, 66, told a packed Oslo City Hall.

A day earlier, she arrived from Switzerland to a jubilant reception as dancing and chanting crowds filled Oslo's streets and showered her with flowers. » | Balazs Koranyi | OSLO | Saturday, June 16, 2012

Anders Breivik Was Challenging and Aggressive Child, Court Hears
THE GUARDIAN: Forensic psychiatrists give evidence to Oslo court where Breivik is on trial for the murder of 77 people in Norway last year

Norwegian social workers considered removing Anders Behring Breivik from his mother when he was four years old because she was unable to cope with his behaviour, described in court as challenging, clinging, hyperactive and aggressive.

The claim came as it emerged that for a brief period in the 1980s Breivik and his sister were taken away from his mother – who was separated from his father – and put into respite care at her request.

The evidence of social problems beginning in Breivik's childhood came in a detailed psychiatric assessment presented to the Oslo court where Breivik, 33, is on trial for the murder of 77 people in a bombing and shooting massacre in Norway last summer, including scores of young people shot at a political camp on the island of Utøya.

The evidence was being given by two forensic psychiatrists, Torgeir Husby and Synne Sørheim, who controversially ruled that Breivik was suffering from "paranoid schizophrenia" when he carried out the murders. » | Peter Beaumont in Oslo | Thursday, June 14, 2012

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Anders Behring Breivik Tells 'Beautiful Nordic' Prosecutors He Is Their 'Defender'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anders Behring Breivik has demanded that his two ethnic Norwegian prosecutors recognise him as the true "defender of their heritage".

Fixing prosecutors Inga Bejer Ingh and Svein Holden with a direct stare, he attacked their argument that his extreme anti-islamic ideology was the result of "delusions" as "very arrogant."

"Bejer Engh, a beautiful Nordic woman, should recognise the defender of her own heritage," he said. "And Holden, a beautiful young Nordic man, should recognise the defender of his own genealogy."

Judge Wenche Arntzen immediately stopped him, cautioning him for commenting on the prosecutors and not information from the witness.

The 33-year-old extremist has always denied being a racist or a fascist, arguing that he defends the rights of indigenous people across the world, and likening the condition of today's Norwegians to Native Americans in the nineteenth century.

He expressed satisfaction that Randi Rosenqvist, a consulting psychiatrist who saw him in prison, told the court she believed that it was his extreme ideology had led him to plan and carry out last year's brutal massacre, rather than paranoid schizophrenia or another mental disorder. » | Richard Orange, Oslo | Tuesday, June 12, 2012

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Norway Spends Hundreds of Thousands on Psychiatric Unit for Breivik
RT: If mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is proved insane, he now has a special place to go. Part of Norway’s high security Ila prison has been converted into a psychiatric unit for the killer.

Estimates of the cost of the conversion vary between 130,000 and 260,000 euro. Norwegian daily Verdens Gang reported on its website that none of the country's existing mental facilities are considered secure enough for Breivik, whose sanity is the key issue in his ongoing trial.

"We are building a high security hospital in Ila," deputy health minister Robin Koss told the newspaper, adding the facility near Oslo still needs state certification. » | Fridau, June 08, 2012

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Norwegian Far Right Defend Breivik's Views on Islam
BBC: Defence witnesses from the far right in Norway have backed Anders Behring Breivik's views on Islam in court on Day 31 of his murder trial.

They said Norway was threatened by Muslim immigration, an argument used by Breivik in an attempt to justify massacring 77 people and injuring 242.

Breivik's defence said the extremists' testimony proved he was not insane because others shared his views.

However, the speakers did not condone Breivik's attacks.

Breivik admits bombing government buildings in the capital Oslo before shooting young Labour Party supporters at a camp on the lake island of Utoeya on 22 July.

Norway, a small nation famous for its traditions of political tolerance, was traumatised by the attacks.

The trial is seeking to establish whether the 33-year-old is sane, in which case he will be sent to prison. If not, he will be held in a psychiatric institution.

The court warned on Tuesday it might not be able to deliver its verdict until 20 July or even 24 August, for logistical reasons.

'We're at war'

Arne Tumyr, who heads an organisation called Stop the Islamisation of Norway, described Islam as "a religion of violence, a religion of wars".

His organisation, he said, considered Islam "a threat to Norwegian society and values". » | Tuesday, June 05, 2012

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Breivik Judge Caught Playing Solitaire in Norway Court
FOX NEWS: OSLO -- A judge at the trial of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was caught playing solitaire on his laptop during Monday's proceedings, the VG newspaper reported.

Ernst Henning Eielsen, one of the five judges for the case, can clearly be seen on court cameras playing the card game.

According to VG [Verdens Gang], Eielsen was playing the game on a solitaire website, and images showed solitaire in his browser window for up to 16 minutes before the court was adjourned for lunch.

A Swedish expert was testifying while the judge played the game.

A court spokeswoman denied the judge was not paying attention and said the game may have helped him concentrate. » | Newscore | Monday, June 04, 2012

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Norway Prison to Hire 'Friends' to Play Chess and Hockey with Breivik
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Norway's Ila prison will hire trained 'friends' to keep confessed mass killer Anders Breivik company, as he is deemed too dangerous to mingle with ordinary prisoners.

"It could be anything from a team for indoor hockey to people who are willing to play chess with him," Knut Bjarkeid, director of the Ila prison, told Norway's Verdens Gang newspaper.

He said that a "professional community" was necessary because the Norwegian prison service was not willing to inflict years of isolation on Breivik, and he might try to seize other inmates if allowed to mingle with them. » | Richard Orange in Malmö | Thursday, May 32, 2012

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anders Breivik was victim of 'blood diamond' scam: Norwegian killer Anders Behring Breivik transferred nearly $5,000 into a Liberian man's bank account and spent another $13,000 travelling to Liberia and buying equipment, after falling for what appears to be an elaborate blood diamond scam. » | Richard Orange, Oslo | Wednesday, May 30, 2012

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Breivik Took Stimulants Before Massacre - Expert
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anders Breivik took illegal substances to increase his physical and mental capacities on the day he launched a killing spree last July, an expert told an Oslo court on Thursday.

Before he launched his July 22 bomb attac[k] on a government building in Oslo and went on a shooting rampage on Utoeya island, Breivik said he had taken an an ECA stack, a combination of ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin.

This mix is illegal in Norway and the United States among other countries but is popular among body-builders and is often used for weight loss and as a stimulant.

"He was slightly to moderately under the influence of a high affecting the central nervous system," Professor Joerg Moerland of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health told the Oslo district court on the 28th day of Breivik's trial.

The 33-year-old right-wing extremist has said he took 50 percent more than the normal ECA stack dose authorised in the European Union only a few hours before his attacks.

Breivik has told the court the drug cocktail allows "the brain to absorb more oxygen and this results in better physical and mental performance." » | Thursday, May 31, 2012

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Mass killer Anders Behring Breivik Acted Alone, Norwegian Police Have Told a Court
THE AUSTRALIAN: NORWEGIAN police have said that Anders Behring Breivik had no accomplices when he massacred 77 people, but the confessed killer maintained he belonged to a network ready to strike within the next 15 months.

Whether or not the mysterious Knights Templar organisation exists is an important question, since it can shed light on the focal point of the trial: Breivik's sanity when he carried out his twin attacks last July 22.

Does the right-wing extremist really belong to a network created to protect Europe against multiculturalism and a "Muslim invasion", as he claims, or has he simply dreamed up this organisation, of which police have found no trace?

"We feel sure of this conclusion: no evidence in this case suggests any physical or psychological accomplices," Oslo police chief Kenneth Wilberg told the Oslo district court on the 27th day of Breivik's trial. » | AFP | Thursday, May 31, 2012


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Anders Behring Breivik a Self-styled 'Metrosexual' Who Used David Beckham as Example

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anders Behring Breivik was a self-styled "metrosexual" who used David Beckham as an example, his trial in Oslo heard.

The Norwegian mass killer's life "fell apart" after a failed relationship with a Belarusian internet date left him struggling with his sexuality, his friends told the court.

"That was perhaps his last attempt at dating a girl like the other boys did," his best friend's ex-girlfriend told the court.

Breivik's friends suspected the 33-year-old extremist might be homosexual because he was feminine and fastidious about his appearance, another friend, a lawyer in Norway's Ministry of Defence, said.

"He used make-up powder, those kinds of things, and he explained that as being 'metrosexual'. He made reference to David Beckham being that at the time."

Breivik, who admits to killing 77 people in Norway last July, retorted angrily when allowed to respond at the end of the day's proceedings.

"I have not been vain after 2006, and I've never been feminine either," he complained. "The only function that this powder had was as a cover to hide acne." » | Richard Orange, Oslo | Tuesday, May 29, 2012

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Mass killer Breivik Had Unusually Close Relationship with Mum, Norwegian Court Hears

HERALD SUN: NORWEGIAN mass killer Anders Behring Breivik had an unusually close relationship with his mother and friends thought he was afraid of coming out as gay, a court heard today.

Two of the 33-year-old's friends gave evidence at the court in Oslo in which they described the right-wing extremist as obsessed with how he looked.

Four friends were due to testify in the trial today and a statement from Breivik's mother, Wenche Behring, will also be read out.

One of the friends said he thought Breivik was depressed or was a closet homosexual after he moved back in with his mum in 2006, Dagbladet newspaper reported.

The witness said, "I think they had a more friendly relationship than a mother and son normally have." » | Newscore | Tuesday, May 29, 2012

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NEWS AND VIEWS FROM NORWAY: Breivik’s family avoids testifying: Lawyers for terror defendant Anders Behring Breivik have opted against calling his family members and several other key persons from his past to testify, at Breivik’s own request. The prosecution isn’t calling them in either, even though they could shed important light on the main question that needs to be addressed in his trial: Whether he’s sane or insane. » | Nina Berglund | Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Anders Behring Breivik 'Asked for Band-Aid When Arrested'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The policeman who arrested Anders Behring Breivik described a calm but disconcerting killer who asked for a Band-Aid for a small cut on his finger.

On the 25th day of his trial for killing 77 people last July 22, Breivik surprised the court when he hailed the police, who have been severely criticised in Norway for not acting quickly enough to stop the bloodbath, insisting they did the best job possible under difficult circumstances.

Haavard Gaasbakk, the head of local police operations, told the Oslo district court he had exchanged a few words with the today 33-year-old right-wing extremist when he handcuffed him last year.

"You are not the ones I am targeting. I consider you as brothers. It's a coup: I must save Norway from Islamisation," Breivik had said as he lay on the ground with the police officer kneeling on his back.

The man on the ground was also dressed as a police officer and had just spent more than an hour methodically executing panicked youngsters attending a summer camp hosted by the ruling Labour Party's youth wing. » | Source: AFP | Friday, May 25, 2012

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Anders Behring Breivik 'Will Not Appeal Guilty Verdict If He Is Found Sane'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anders Behring Breivik has said he will not appeal a certain guilty verdict if the judges deem him to be sane.

The 33-year-old said there would be absolutely no reason to appeal if I am declared criminally accountable".

Breivik has confessed to the twin attacks that killed 77 people in Oslo and Utoya but has refused to plead guilty, insisting they were "cruel but necessary" to stop the ruling Labour Party's "multicultural experiment" and the "Muslim invasion" of Norway and Europe.

The question of Breivik's sanity is a focal point of the trial. » | Source” AFP | Thursday, May 24, 2012

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