Monday, April 16, 2012

Extremist Norwegian killer declared sane - FT.com

Extremist Norwegian killer declared sane - FT.com

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April 10, 2012 3:29 pm

Extremist Norwegian killer declared sane

Breivik, man accused of a killing spree and bomb attack in Norway
Anders Behring Breivik, the rightwing extremist who confessed to massacring 77 people in Norway last year, has been declared sane by a psychiatric team before his trial starting next week.
An assessment commissioned by Oslo District Court found that he was “not psychotic, unaware or severely mentally handicapped” during the shooting spree at a Labour party youth camp last July.

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The findings contradict an assessment last November that found him to be insane and therefore potentially not fit for a conventional prison sentence. It raises the possibility Mr Breivik may face jail rather than being committed to a psychiatric ward if found guilty.
He could face up to 21 years in prison if found guilty with the potential for indefinite extensions to his term as long as he is considered a danger to the public.
Mr Breivik has always insisted he is mentally stable, saying he carried out the attacks in a “crusade” against multiculturalism and Islam. In a recent letter to the Norwegian tabloid Verdans Gang, he said being sent to a psychiatric ward would be a “fate worse than death”.
“To send a political activist to an asylum is more sadistic and more evil than killing him,” he wrote, adding that 80 per cent of the first report into his mental state was wrong.
The new report from forensic psychiatrists Terje Tørrissen and Agnar Aspaas concludes that he did not have “significantly weakened capacity for realistic evaluation of his relations with the outside world, and did not act under severely impaired consciousness”.
The report was drawn up on the basis of the case documents, interviews, health records and three weeks of observation in an institution. It concluded there was “a high risk of repetition of violence”.
Mr Breivik, who was charged last month with terrorism offences, has confessed to the attacks. He admitted last year to planting a bomb in Oslo and then driving to the island of Utøya and killing 67 people, mostly teenagers, and wounding 33 others.
Last month prosecutors said they would seek compulsory psychiatric care rather than jail because of the previous report declaring him psychotic, but reserved the right to change their minds. The court will ultimately have to decide whether to declare him insane or not.
The attacks, on July 22 last year, are the worst act of violence Norway has seen since the second world war and led to soul searching about how such a shocking crime could have occurred in a place normally known for safety, equality and wealth.

Breivik refuses to recognise Oslo court - FT.com

Breivik refuses to recognise Oslo court - FT.com

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Last updated:April 16, 2012 11:43 am

Breivik refuses to recognise Oslo court

Rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in twin attacks in Norway last year arrives in court©Getty
The Norwegian who has admitted taking 77 lives in a terrorist bombing and shooting spree in July gave a fascist-style salute and refused to recognise the court at the start of his trial on Monday.
However, victims of the atrocity expressed satisfaction with the first day of Anders Behring Breivik’s trial for homicide and terrorism.

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Tore Sinding Bekkedal, a Labour youth politician who survived the massacre at the Utøya summer camp, said he had worried about the “media circus” surrounding the trial. But he summed up the first day as “relievingly dignified”. Some 1,400 journalists from around the world have been accredited by the Oslo district court.
The accused looked nervous but exhilarated when he appeared in the courtroom. Once handcuffs were removed, he performed a salute by taking his right fist to his heart before extending the arm.
After the presiding judge, Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen, offered Mr Breivik the opportunity to speak, the accused said he did not recognise the court, “because its mandate derives from parties that support multiculturalism, and because you [Ms Arntzen] are a friend of Hanne Harlem, sister of Gro Harlem Brundtland”, the former Labour prime minister of Norway.
His lawyer explained later that Mr Breivik thought he should be tried by a military tribunal.
Mr Breivik stared down while the prosecution read the indictment, including the name of each person killed and the manner of their death in Oslo and on the island of Utøya. Mr Breivik acknowledged the actions but pleaded not guilty to terror and murder charges, saying he was acting in self-defence.
The accused, who otherwise rarely betrayed emotion, shocked the audience by weeping in court as the state prosecutor, Svein Holden, screened a 12-minute ideological slideshow that Mr Breivik had uploaded to the internet just hours before he carried out his attacks. He smiled and chatted with his lawyers when the court adjourned shortly afterward.
One of the most gripping moments of the day came when Mr Holden played a recording of a girl’s emergency call to the police while she was hiding from Mr Breivik in a toilet.
“I’m so scared” she could be heard whispering, as loud shots sounded in the background.
The prosecutor also played two calls Mr Breivik made to the police to surrender, neither of which seems to have been followed up.
Controversy has marked the preparations for the trial. In dispute is whether Mr Breivik was psychotic at the time of the act, as a first psychiatric evaluation concluded. If the court agrees, the law would rule out a criminal conviction but Mr Breivik could be sentenced to compulsory psychiatric care.
A second evaluation made a different diagnosis, which would permit a criminal sentence of a jail term of up to 21 years or indefinite detention.
Mr Holden said prosecutors had not decided whether to demand a criminal conviction. His co-prosecutor, Inga Bejer Engh, suggested that they will not present proofs for or against an insanity defence, but let the evidence “cast light from all sides”.
Lawyers for the victims said most of their clients would prefer a criminal conviction to be reassured of a sufficient punishment. They were worried that if the court found Mr Breivik to be psychotic, there was a chance that he would be let out once he was cured. Legal professionals said this was unlikely but Mr Breivik’s case would come up for regular review.
Mr Breivik himself wants to be judged as legally competent. He pleaded not guilty and instructed his lawyers to demand that he be set free because he acted on a “principle of necessity”.
Many Norwegians are angry that Mr Breivik can use the proceedings as a way to put forward his extreme anti-Muslim views. His lawyer has warned that Mr Breivik may say he regrets “not having gone further”.
The accused is due to start testifying on Tuesday. He has requested permission from the court to read out prepared remarks for the first 30 minutes.

Anders Behring Breivik's Raised Fist -- The Varied Meanings - NYTimes.com

Anders Behring Breivik's Raised Fist -- The Varied Meanings - NYTimes.com

Breivik Trial News Review - Mike Nova's starred items - 1:43 PM 4/16/2012

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Breivik Trial News Review - Mike Nova's starred items - 1:43 PM 4/16/2012


FILE -In this Monday, April 16, 2012, file photo, accused Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik gestures as he arrives at the courtroom, in Oslo, Norway. Causes across the political spectrum have long used distinctive salutes to identify themselves. Breivik, the far-right suspect in the massacre of 77 people in Norway, is hardly the first to flash such a salute. (AP Photo/Hakon Mosvold Larsen, Pool, File )Black power. White power. Nazis. Communists.


via Reuters Video: Top News on 4/16/12
April 16 - Anders Breivik wiped away tears as prosecutors showed an anti-Islamic propaganda video he'd made ahead of last year's killing spree in Norway. Deborah Gembara reports.

via Google News on 4/16/12

Telegraph.co.uk


Anders Behring Breivik statement 'will determine legal sanity'
Telegraph.co.uk
Anders Behring Breivik should be allowed to read his statement to court tomorrow because it is the "most importance piece of evidence" in determining whether he is "legally sane". By Richard Orange, Oslo In an opening statement to the court in Oslo, ...

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via Google News on 4/16/12


Video of Anders Behring Breivik in Court
New York Times (blog)
By ROBERT MACKEY Associated Press video of Anders Behring Breivik's salute at the start of his trial on Monday in Oslo. Later, a television camera caught Mr. Breivik breaking down in tears, not during a description of the killings, but as the court ...

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via Google News on 4/16/12


Norway rampage suspect claims self-defense justifies killings
CNN (blog)
The man accused of killing 77 people in a bomb-and-gun rampage in Norway last summer claimed as he went on trial for terrorism and murder Monday that self-defense justified his actions. "I acknowledge the acts but do not plead guilty, and I claim I was ...

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Christian Science Monitor


Anders Behring Breivik, confessed Norwegian killer, goes on trial
Los Angeles Times
LONDON -- Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to killing 77 people in a rampage last July, went on trial Monday in Oslo for Norway's worst criminal episode since World War II. The 33-year-old right-wing extremist has admitted to slaying 69 young ...
Norway mass killer Anders Behring Breivik claims self-defense in bomb-and ...CBS News
Anders Behring Breivik, Norway Mass Killer, Trial BeginsHuffington Post
Video of Anders Behring Breivik in CourtNew York Times (blog)
Christian Science Monitor -Bloomberg
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Norway killer admits massacre, claims self-defense
Denver Post
By KARL RITTER Accused Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik gestures as he arrives at the courtroom, Monday, April 16, 2012 in Oslo, Norway. The terror trial against an anti-Muslim fanatic who confessed to killing 77 people in Norway starts amid worries ...



Breivik defiant as Norway massacre trial begins
Springfield News-Leader
The court room which will accommodate the trial of Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people in a bomb-and-shooting massacre is prepared Friday April 13, 2012 in Oslo, Norway for the start of the trial Monday April 16. The twin attacks on July 22, ...



The Global Note: Norway's Mass Killer…Secret Service Mess…Paparazzi, Pippa ...
ABC News (blog)
The terror trial of Anders Behring Breivik, an anti-Muslim fanatic who confessed to killing 77 people in Norway, began this morning. Breivik pleaded not guilty to terror and murder charges, saying he was acting in self-defense. Breivik told the court: ...


Sky News


Anders Behring Breivik: Trial Of Norway Terror Attack Accused To Begin On Monday
Sky News
Anders Behring Breivik is to appear in court on Monday, almost nine months after he admitted killing 77 people by detonating a bomb in the centre of Oslo and opening fire on youngsters attending a summer camp on Utoya island. The 33-year-old is charged ...

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Trial of Anders Behring Breivik Opens in Norway - NYTimes.com

Trial of Anders Behring Breivik Opens in Norway - NYTimes.com

Gunman in Norway Claims Self-Defense as Trial Begins

Heiko Junge/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Anders Behring Breivik saluted as he entered the courtroom in Oslo on Monday morning.

OSLO — By turns defiant, impassive and, just once, tearful, a self-described anti-Islamic militant who admitted carrying out Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity last year, killing 77 people including scores of young people at a summer camp on a tranquil, wooded island, went on trial here on Monday proclaiming that he had acted in self-defense, bore no criminal guilt and rejected the authority of the court.
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In remarkable evidence played to a packed and shocked courtroom, recordings of cellphone calls made by the gunman to the police suggested that he had tried twice to give himself up and had simply gone on killing in the absence of officers to accept his surrender. In the period after the first call to his final shot being fired, prosecutors said, 41 people died.
The gunman, Anders Behring Breivik, 33, has admitted on several occasions that he carried out the rampage on July 22, in which 69 people were shot and killed on Utoya Island, near Oslo, where the youth wing of the governing Labor Party was holding a summer camp. Hours earlier, a car bombing in central Oslo killed eight people.
As the grisly evidence unfolded, and some of the bereaved families and survivors in the courtroom sobbed inconsolably, Mr. Breivik remained mostly impassive, and at one point seemed to discreetly stifle a yawn. Only as the court viewed a video that Mr. Breivik had made before the attacks to publicize his cause, did he break down in tears, dabbing at his face.
Asked by a judge on Monday whether he wished to plead guilty, Mr. Breivik said, “I acknowledge the acts, but I don’t plead guilty as I claim I was doing it in self-defense.” He had previously denied criminal responsibility on the grounds that he was protecting Norway from Islamic immigration.
Mr. Breivik showed no emotion on Monday as the prosecutor, Inga Bejer Engh, solemnly and painstakingly intoned the names of the dead. “I do not recognize the Norwegian courts,” Mr. Breivik said at another point in the hearing. “You have received your mandate from political parties which support multiculturalism. I do not acknowledge the authority of the court.”
Hundreds of reporters and video crews have flooded into Oslo to cover Mr. Breivik’s hearings, which are evoking both drama and outrage as Norway relives the horror last summer that shattered its self-image as a well-ordered place of relative tranquillity and tolerance.
The bloody intrusion of urban terrorism into ordinary lives was rekindled in dozens of images of wreckage and explosions recorded by security cameras at the time of the Oslo bombing — before the killings on Utoya — and shown to the court on Monday, prompting survivors, bereaved families and journalists to gasp in shock, some of them covering their mouths with their hands.
Then, in perhaps the most wrenching moment of the first day’s hearing, the court heard a two-minute recording of the voice of an unidentified girl hiding in a toilet on the island. “He’s coming. He’s coming. Please...”
Then there was only the sound of shots being fired.
In e time it took the police to hear that brief call on July 22, prosecutors said, seven more people had died. Since then there has been much questioning of why the police took more than an hour to reach the island after the gunman launched into the attack. When officers did finally arrive, Mr. Breivik surrendered.
In the second call offering to surrender, Mr. Breivik could be heard describing himself as a commander of an organization called the Knights Templar.
“My name is Anders Behring Breivik. I’m a commander of the Norwegian Resistance Movement. Could you give me the head of Delta?” he said, apparently referring to an elite police unit. “I’m on Utoya. I’m a person who wishes to surrender,” he said, claiming to have successfully completed an “operation.”
“Since it has been completed, it is time to give myself up to Delta,” he said and then rang off. At least 11 more people were killed before he did, in fact, turn himself in, prosecutors said.
The prosecution also showed a photograph of the island with a moving electronic red line showing the progression of the killings. As the line made its way around the island, Svein Holden, a prosecutor, paused it to read out the name of the victim who died at that point.
As he entered the courtroom dressed in a dark suit on Monday, Mr. Breivik offered a display of defiance, delivering a clenched-fist salute with his right arm thrust rigidly out from his body, but shook hands with court officers.
In a manifesto posted online shortly before the attacks last year, Mr. Breivik described the gesture as the salute of the Knights Templar organization, which he claimed to have founded a decade ago. Prosecutors said in court on Monday that the group did not exist, apparently contradicting Mr. Breivik’s initial assertions that he acted as part of a broader conspiracy rather than as a so-called lone wolf.
Sporting a neatly trimmed, thin beard tracing his chin and jaw line, he seemed to alternate between nervous perusal of notes — some reports said the papers he was reading listed the names of his victims — and smirks toward photographers.
Asked to identify himself, he gave his name and denied a court official’s statement that he was unemployed and lived in prison. “That is not correct,” he said. “I am a writer and I work from prison.”
As the case resumed after a break for lunch, Mr. Breivik refused to join others in rising to stand when the judges re-entered the courtroom.
Mr. Breivik wants to read out a 30-minute statement that will be “the most important piece of evidence presented to the court on whether he will be found to be sane or not” when he gives evidence for the first time in his full trial on Tuesday, his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said on Monday as the case adjourned after its first day.
“We understand the bereaved don’t want this court to be turned into a pulpit, we understand it would be hard for the families,” Mr. Lippestad said, “but he has a right as a defendant in Norwegian law to give a statement, and a human right as well.” The five judges did not immediately rule on the request.
His trial is set to last 10 weeks, with many Norwegian analysts fearing that he will use the occasion as an opportunity to broadcast his cause in a land that, like much of the Nordic region, prides itself on a social model that discourages radicalism. The central issue facing the court is to determine his mental health.
If Mr. Breivik is deemed to have been sane when he carried out the killings, the presiding judges can sentence him to up to 21 years in prison, with a provision to keep him behind bars for longer if he is still considered dangerous. If found insane, Mr. Breivik can be kept in forced psychiatric care for as long as his illness persists.
Two court-ordered psychiatric reports have reached contradictory conclusions. The first report, last November, determined that Mr. Breivik was a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic before, during and after the attacks. The second, on April 10, said he was sane, albeit with a narcissistic personality disorder.
In a letter to the Norwegian news media on April 4, Mr. Breivik said the two psychiatrists responsible for the initial report were ideologically predisposed to pass an insanity judgment.
“Our political views are completely incompatible,” he said, restating a belief “that multiculturalism is an anti-Norwegian, hate ideology designed to deconstruct Norwegian ethnicity, Norwegian culture and traditions, and Norwegian Christianity.
“Where I believe that multiculturalists facilitate the gradual Islamic colonization of our country, they consider that Islam is a great enrichment for Norway and Europe.”
Mr. Lippestad, Mr. Breivik’s lawyer, has proposed calling witnesses from extreme ends of the political spectrum to demonstrate that Mr. Breivik’s fears of Muslim colonization were not fantasies.
Among them is Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi-born Islamist cleric who moved to Norway in 1991 and was sentenced to five years in prison in March for making death threats against Norwegian officials and three Kurds.
Ron Atle, the leader of a far-right group, and Carl Hagen, the former leader of the mainstream anti-immigration Progress Party, will also be called, prompting claims from prominent Norwegian lawyers that Mr. Lippestad was planning to turn the trial into “a circus.”
But the appetite among Norwegians for more coverage of the killings seems limited.
Saturation newspaper coverage since the attacks and three pretrial courtroom appearances have left many people in the country wanting to see less of Mr. Breivik.
Dagbladet, the country’s second-largest daily, has even introduced a Breivik-free version of its Web site for the duration of the trial.

Mark Lewis reported from Oslo, and Alan Cowell from London.


The New York Times

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    April 16, 2012

    Gunman in Norway Claims Self-Defense as Trial Begins



    OSLO — By turns defiant, impassive and, just once, tearful, a self-described anti-Islamic militant who admitted carrying out Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity last year, killing 77 people including scores of young people at a summer camp on a tranquil, wooded island, went on trial here on Monday proclaiming that he acted in self-defense, bore no criminal guilt and rejected the authority of the court.
    In remarkable evidence played to a packed and shocked courtroom, recordings of cellphone calls made by the gunman to the police suggested that he tried twice to give himself up and simply went on killing in the absence of officers to accept his surrender. In the period after the first call to his final shot being fired, prosecutors said, 41 people died.
    Anders Behring Breivik, 33, has admitted on several occasions that he carried out the rampage on July 22, in which 69 people were shot and killed on Utoya Island, near Oslo, where the youth wing of the governing Labor Party was holding a summer camp. Hours earlier, a car bombing in central Oslo killed eight people.
    As the grisly evidence unfolded, and some of the bereaved families and survivors in the courtroom sobbed inconsolably, Mr. Breivik remained mostly impassive, and at one point seemed to a reporter watching him to stifle a yawn. Only as the court viewed a video that Mr. Breivik had made before the attacks to publicize his cause, did he break down in tears, dabbing at his face.
    Asked by a judge on Monday whether he wished to plead guilty, Mr. Breivik said, “I acknowledge the acts, but I don’t plead guilty as I claim I was doing it in self-defense.” He had previously denied criminal responsibility on the ground that he was protecting Norway against Islamic immigration.
    Mr. Breivik showed no emotion on Monday as the prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh solemnly and painstakingly intoned the names of the dead. “I do not recognize the Norwegian courts,” Mr. Breivik said at another point in the hearing. “You have received your mandate from political parties which support multiculturalism. I do not acknowledge the authority of the court.”
    Hundreds of reporters and video crews have flooded into Oslo to cover Mr. Breivik’s hearings, which are evoking both drama and outrage as Norway relives the horror last summer that shattered its self-image as a well-ordered place of relative tranquillity and tolerance.
    The bloody intrusion of urban terrorism into ordinary lives was rekindled in dozens of images of wreckage and explosions recorded by security cameras at the time of the Oslo bombing — before the killings on Utoya — and shown to the court on Monday, prompting survivors, bereaved families and journalists to gasp in shock, some of them covering their mouths with their hands.
    Then, in perhaps the most wrenching moment of the first day’s hearing, the court heard a two-minute recording of the voice of an unidentified girl hiding in a toilet on the island. “He’s coming. He’s coming. Please...”
    Then there was only the sound of shots being fired.
    In e time it took the police to hear that brief call on July 22, prosecutors said, seven more people had died. Since then there has been much questioning of why the police took more than an hour to reach the island after the gunman launched into the attack. When officers did finally arrive, Mr. Breivik surrendered.
    In the second call offering to surrender, Mr. Breivik could be heard describing himself as a commander of an organization called the Knights Templar.
    “My name is Anders Behring Breivik. I’m a commander of the Norwegian Resistance Movement. Could you give me the head of Delta?” he said, apparently referring to an elite police unit. “I’m on Utoya. I’m a person who wishes to surrender,” he said, claiming to have successfully completed an “operation.”
    “Since it has been completed, it is time to give myself up to Delta,” he said and then rang off. At least 11 more people were killed before he did, in fact, turn himself in, prosecutors said.
    The prosecution also showed a photograph of the island with a moving an electronic red line showing the progression of the killing. As the line made its way around the island, Svein Holden, a prosecutor, paused it to read out the name of the victim who died at that point.
    As he entered the courtroom dressed in a dark suit on Monday, Mr. Breivik offered a display of defiance, delivering a clenched-fist salute with his right arm thrust rigidly out from his body, but shook hands with court officers.
    In a manifesto posted online shortly before the attacks last year, Mr. Breivik described the gesture as the salute of the Knights Templar organization, which he claimed to have founded a decade ago. Prosecutors said in court on Monday that the group did not exist, apparently contradicting Mr. Breivik’s initial assertions that he acted as part of a broader conspiracy rather than as a so-called lone wolf.
    Sporting a neatly trimmed, thin beard tracing his chin and jaw line, he seemed to alternate between nervous perusal of notes — some reports said the papers he was reading listed the names of his victims — and smirks toward photographers.
    Asked to identify himself, he gave his name and denied a court official’s statement that he was unemployed and lived in prison. “That is not correct,” he said. “I am a writer and I work from prison.”
    As the case resumed after a break for lunch, Mr. Breivik refused to join others in rising to stand when the judges re-entered the courtroom.
    His trial is set to last 10 weeks, with many Norwegian analysts fearing that he will use the occasion as an opportunity to broadcast his cause in a land that, like much of the Nordic region, prides itself on a social model that discourages radicalism. The central issue facing the court is to determine his mental health.
    If Mr. Breivik is deemed to have been sane when he carried out the killings, the five presiding judges can sentence him to up to 21 years in prison, with a provision to keep him behind bars for longer if he is still considered dangerous. If he is found to be insane, Mr. Breivik can be kept in forced psychiatric care for as long as his illness persists.
    Two court-ordered psychiatric reports have reached contradictory conclusions. The first report, last November, determined that Mr. Breivik was a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic before, during and after the attacks. The second, on April 10, said he was sane, albeit with a narcissistic personality disorder.
    In a letter to the Norwegian news media on April 4, Mr. Breivik said the two psychiatrists responsible for the initial report were ideologically predisposed to pass an insanity judgment.
    “Our political views are completely incompatible,” he said, restating a belief “that multiculturalism is an anti-Norwegian, hate ideology designed to deconstruct Norwegian ethnicity, Norwegian culture and traditions, and Norwegian Christianity.
    “Where I believe that multiculturalists facilitate the gradual Islamic colonization of our country, they consider that Islam is a great enrichment for Norway and Europe.”
    Mr. Breivik’s lawyer Geir Lippestad has proposed calling witnesses from extreme ends of the political spectrum to demonstrate that Mr. Breivik’s fears of Muslim colonization were not fantasies.
    Among them is Mullah Krekar, an Iraqi-born Islamist cleric who moved to Norway in 1991 and was sentenced to five years in prison in March for making death threats against Norwegian officials and three Kurds.
    Ron Atle, the leader of a far-right group, and Carl Hagen, the former leader of the mainstream anti-immigration Progress Party, will also be called, prompting claims from prominent Norwegian lawyers that Mr. Lippestad was planning to turn the trial into “a circus.”
    But the appetite among Norwegians for more coverage of the killings seems limited.
    Saturation newspaper coverage since the attacks and three pretrial courtroom appearances have left many people in the country wanting to see less of Mr. Breivik, not more.
    Dagbladet, the country’s second-largest daily, has even introduced a Breivik-free version of its Web site for the duration of the trial.

    Mark Lewis reported from Oslo, and Alan Cowell from London.

    Smirking Norway killer Breivik pleads not guilty | Reuters

    Smirking Norway killer Breivik pleads not guilty | Reuters

    'Answer hatred with love': how Norway tried to cope with the horror of Anders Breivik | World news | The Observer

    'Answer hatred with love': how Norway tried to cope with the horror of Anders Breivik | World news | The Observer

    The most difficult time came in November when the psychiatrists assessing Breivik declared that he was a paranoid schizophrenic who could not be held responsible for his actions.
    Dr Michael Stone, an expert on forensic psychiatry at Columbia University, New York, said it was a conclusion no psychiatrist in the US would have reached. "I have the impression that 'insane' in Scandinavia is more or less synonymous with 'crazy', which casts a wider net than 'insane' as a legal term," he said. "Breivik, as far as I can put together, is of a paranoid and narcissistic personality configuration, like most terrorists."
    A second assessment, commissioned by the court at the request of the victims' lawyers, concluded last week that Breivik was sane, leaving the final decision up to the judges.

    Breivik trial: Norwegians rethink role of psychiatry in courts - CSMonitor.com

    Breivik trial: Norwegians rethink role of psychiatry in courts - CSMonitor.com

    The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

    Breivik trial: Norwegians rethink role of psychiatry in courts

    The trial of Anders Behring Breivik for the worst peacetime atrocity in Norwegian history is set to begin tomorrow, with his mental health at the crux of the case.
    Temp Headline Image
    The courthouse in Oslo, Norwak, where Anders Behring Breivik will be tried.
    (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

    By Valeria Criscione, Correspondent
    posted April 15, 2012 at 1:31 pm EDT
    OsloIn the first days after the twin terror attacks last year, Norway’s prime minister was quick to come out with a comforting message to the grieving nation. The country would respond to Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre with “more openness, more democracy,” said Jens Stoltenberg. This would not change Norwegian society.
    Nine months later, the trial for the worst peacetime atrocity in Norwegian history is set to begin tomorrow, and the country is at a crossroad.
    Norwegians have had their confidence in the judicial system shaken after two conflicting psychiatric reports have come to the opposite conclusion on Breivik’s mental standing. The first from November deemed him paranoid schizophrenic and hence legally not punishable. The second, released last week, said he was not psychotic.
    Some of the questions now being raised: Are Norwegian courts putting too much weight on forensic psychiatrist reports in determining legal sanity? And are too many criminals being incorrectly diagnosed as psychotic?
    “It is clear to me that this case will weaken the position of forensic psychiatry in Norway,” says Nils Christie, a criminal law professor at the University of Oslo. “I think it is all to the good that psychiatrists, as other experts, get decreased power in the system, and that the judges and juries regain their authority.”
    The debate has its roots from the first psychiatric report. As soon as Breivik was declared sane, many started to question the reliability of the system. How could someone who so meticulously planned a complicated attack over so many years be psychotic?
    Breivik had bought a farm and produced his own fertilizer explosives. On July 22, he planted a car bomb in front of the government building and then drove to the island of Utøya disguised as a police officer to massacre the Labor party youth at their summer camp. Prior to that, he spent years writing a 1,500-page manifesto in English detailing his crusade against the Muslim colonization of Europe.
    “Of course he is sick, but if he is insane or not, that is something else,” Eskil Pedersen, leader of Labour party youth organization AUF who escaped Utøya that day, recently told members of the Norwegian Foreign Press Association. “You can’t be normal and kill 77 people, but you can be sane in the legal way.”
    The outcry after the controversial first report has revealed Norwegians’ thirst for justice in a country otherwise known for scorning capital punishment and life sentences and promoting rehabilitation of prisoners. Suddenly victims were worried that Norway’s most notorious killer in modern times might not serve prison time – in this case 21 years – for his heinous acts. Many felt it wasn’t enough that he would be sent to compulsory mental care.
    “If the court comes to the conclusion that he is sane, and it is they who decide, I think many will feel that this is a relief,” said Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s prime minister, during Norwegian TV2 talk show Senkveld on Friday night. “For all the victims, and all those who were affected, I think it would be an advantage if the court found him sane.”
    Psychology experts say the problem with the current system is that too many criminals have fallen into the category of psychotic. There is a call to redraft paragraph 44 in the Norwegian criminal code that states that anyone at the time of the incident was psychotic or unconscious cannot be punished.
    “In 2002 the words were changed for insane,” says Pål Abrahamsen, a Norwegian forensic psychiatrist. “It has come to be used more and more broadly. Now it’s important to make a difference between psychotic and those that are legally insane.”
    He adds: “We have to sharpen the 2002 [legal] system so that it doesn’t allow so many people to claim psychosis."
    This in fact may end up happening. Grete Faremo, Norway’s justice minister, has said that it plans to establish a committee to examine the role of forensic psychiatrists. She told Norwegian daily Aftenposten on April 13 the committee would have a “broad mandate” that would examine three key questions: What is sanity? What is the role of the forensic psychiatrist? And how do we take care of security when an insane man is sentenced?
    “Much suggests that the medical principle is inadequate,” said Faremo. “It is a historic step we are now taking. It is an important step in light of the terrible incident and the trial we face and in consideration of people's sense of justice.”
    “This is a big thing,” says Abrahamsen. “If it hadn’t been for Breivik, we wouldn’t have discussed this.”
    The ultimate decision on Breivik’s sanity will come at the end of the 10-week trial. The judges will weigh both psychiatric reports and the evidence presented during the course of the trial. There is expected to be particular emphasis on Breivik’s five-day opening testimony, which is set to start Tuesday, April 17, in deciding on whether the 33-year-old Norwegian can be held criminally accountable. The prosecution has based its indictment on the premise that Breivik is insane, while the defense plans to plea he is sane but not guilty.
    Breivik's attorney says his client has indicated it is important to him to be considered sane so that his ideology would "stand stronger." The prosecution, meanwhile, opted in March when it first presented its indictment to recommend compulsory mental care given that there was only one psychiatric report, which deemed him insane. It has left open the possibility for changing the indictment to a prison sentence during the course of the trial.
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    The Breivik Trial - Mike Nova's starred items


    via News's Facebook Wall by News on 4/16/12
    Confessed Killer Breivik's Trial Begins In Norway


    Confessed Killer Breivik's Trial Begins In Norway
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    Trial of Anders Behring Breivik Opens in Norway


    Trial of Anders Behring Breivik Opens in Norway
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    Norway mass killer salutes as appears in court
    OSLO (Reuters) - The Norwegian anti-Islam militant Anders Behring Breivik who massacred 77 people in July arrived under heavy armed guard at an Oslo courthouse on Monday, lifting his arm in what he has called a rightist salute as his trial began.

    via News's Facebook Wall by News on 4/16/12
    Trial of Anders Behring Breivik Opens in Norway


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    via News's Facebook Wall by News on 4/16/12
    Norway killer Breivik refuses to recognize court


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    via News's Facebook Wall by News on 4/16/12
    Good morning world! Here are today's headlines:
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    Good morning world! Here are today's headlines:
    - Norway killer Breivik rejects...

    Good morning world! Here are today's headlines: - Norway killer Breivik rejects Oslo court’s authority http://bit.ly/HNjimv - Afghan forces end Taliban’s Kabul assault http://bit.ly/HNjl1C - Ceasefire monitors arrive in Syria http://bit.ly/HNjlibNorway killer Breivik rejects Oslo court’s authoritywww.euronews.comworld news - The man who admits to carrying out Europe’s worst peacetime atrocity appeared in court in Norway on Monday....

    via News's Facebook Wall by News on 4/16/12
    Norway killer Breivik refuses to recognize court


    Norway killer Breivik refuses to recognize court
    OSLO (Reuters) - The Norwegian anti-Islamic militant who massacred 77 people last summer arrived at an Oslo courthouse under armed guard on Monday, clenching his fist in a far-right salute and saying he did not recognize the authority of the judges.


    The Guardian



    'Answer hatred with love': how Norway tried to cope with the horror of Anders ...
    The Guardian
    The most difficult time came in November when the psychiatrists assessing Breivik declared that he was a paranoid schizophrenic who could not be held responsible for his actions. Dr Michael Stone, an expert on forensic psychiatry at Columbia University ...
    Inside the Mind of Anders Breivik - The Norwegian on Trial for Mass MurderHuffington Post UK (blog)

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    Mike Nova's starred items


    Christian Science Monitor



    Breivik trial: Norwegians rethink role of psychiatry in courts
    Christian Science Monitor
    Some of the questions now being raised: Are Norwegian courts putting too much weight on forensic psychiatrist reports in determining legal sanity? And are too many criminals being incorrectly diagnosed as psychotic? “It is clear to me that this case ...
    'Answer hatred with love': how Norway tried to cope with the horror of Anders ...The Guardian
    Inside the Mind of Anders Breivik - The Norwegian on Trial for Mass MurderHuffington Post UK (blog)

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    The Guardian



    Breivik mass murder: Norway reexamines role of psychiatry in trials
    Alaska Dispatch
    Some of the questions now being raised: Are Norwegian courts putting too much weight on forensic psychiatrist reports in determining legal sanity? And are too many criminals being incorrectly diagnosed as psychotic? “It is clear to me that this case ...
    'Answer hatred with love': how Norway tried to cope with the horror of Anders ...The Guardian
    Inside the Mind of Anders Breivik - The Norwegian on Trial for Mass MurderHuffington Post UK (blog)

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    via forensic psychiatry - Google Blog Search by Brony Montana on 4/15/12
    “It is clear to me that this case will weaken the position of forensic psychiatry in Norway,” says Nils Christie, a criminal law professor at the University of Oslo. “I think it is all to the good that psychiatrists, as other experts, get ...

    Most Norwegians – including at least two forensic psychiatrists – consider his beliefs evidence of insanity. And many find it equally delusional to believe the supposed need/prophecy of a religious war in Europe could in any ...