Geir Lippestad, who defended convicted terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, has published his memoirs - The Foreigner

Breivik counsel publishes trial memoirs

Published on Friday, 19th April, 2013 at 17:25 under the news in brief category, by Ben McPherson.

Geir Lippestad, who defended convicted terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, has published his memoirs.

Defence counsel and client at one of the 22 July Oslo District Court trial daysGeir Lippestad, Anders Behring Breivik
Photo: ©2013 Ben McPherson/The Foreigner

In the Aschehoug-released book about the case, ‘Det vi kan stå for’ (What We Represent), Lippestad talks about the dilemma of representing the man responsible for the worst peacetime atrocity in Norway since WWII.  Breivik had asked for Lippestad by name.

“There was a lot of hatred after 22nd July”, said Lippestad in an interview with his publisher, “some of it was directed towards me, but most of it was at Breivik.”

“People wanted him gone. But public opinion shifted very quickly as soon as we began to speak about what democracy and the rule of law mean for us here in Norway.”

It was Lippestad’s wife Signe, a nurse at Oslo's Rikshospitalet, who persuaded him take the case. She argued that they would have no choice but to treat Breivik if he had arrived injured at hospital, him. The same rules applied.

Lippestad never doubted he had made the right choice.

“Not after I said yes, and certainly not after the first client meeting,” he explained in the interview. “I thought that what I have been proud of for the last 25 years in this profession is indeed the rule of law.”

Lippestad, who never disguised his own views about his client’s actions, was highly praised during the trial for providing an impeccable defence for Breivik according to the killer’s wishes. 

It was Breivik who insisted on arguing that he was criminally sane. For Lippestad this meant arguing against his original conclusion of insanity he aired in preliminary press statements. 

“We demonstrated human dignity in the 22nd July case. We treated Breivik with dignity, and we gained by that as a nation,” declared Lippestad.

“What sort of people would we be if we had treated him as he could have been treated in some countries and killed him in the street? What would it have cost us as a nation?”

Breivik counsel publishes trial memoirs - The Foreigner - 4/19/2013