Norway mass killer charged but ‘unlikely to go to jail’

Mass killer Anders Breivik was indicted on terror and murder charges for the deaths of 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage, but prosecutors said the confessed killer is unlikely to go to prison.

They consider the right-wing extremist, 33, psychotic and will seek a sentence of involuntary commitment to psychiatric care over imprisonment, unless new information about his mental health emerges during the trial set to start in April.

They charged him under a paragraph in Norway’s anti-terror law that refers to violent acts intended to disrupt key government functions or spread fears in the population.

Breivik has confessed to the July 22 attacks but denies criminal guilt, portraying the victims as “traitors” for embracing immigration policies he claims will result in an Islamic colonisation of Norway.

The indictment listed the names of the eight people killed when a bomb exploded in Oslo and the 69 victims of a shooting spree on Utoya island, where the Labour Party was holding a summer camp for young people.

Prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh, reading from the indictment, said 34 of the victims at Utoya were aged between 14 and 17, 22 were aged between 18 and 20, six were between 21 and 25 and seven were older than 25.

She said 67 died of gunshot wounds, and two of fall injuries or drowning.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 21 years but prosecutors are working under the assumption Breivik is insane and unfit for prison.