Breivik says he would have repeated attack

The Norwegian gunman who massacred 77 people said in court yesterday that he would do the same thing again.

Anders Behring Breivik, aged 33, has pleaded not guilty and said he was defending his country by setting off a car bomb that killed eight people at government headquarters in Oslo last July, then shooting another 69 people at a youth summer camp organised by the ruling Labour Party, in attacks he called “sophisticated and spectacular”.

Taking the stand at his trial for the first time, Breivik read from a statement for an hour, ignoring pleas from the judge to stop and sparking criticism from victims he was being allowed to use the trial for violent propaganda.

Breivik, a former business fraudster, invoked Native American warriors such as Sitting Bull, raged against Islam and multicultural “hell”, and warned of “rivers of blood” in Europe.

“I have carried out the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack committed in Europe since the Second World War,” Breivik told the court in a monotonous, unemotional voice.

“The July 22 attacks were preemptive attacks to defend the Norwegian people and the Norwegian ethnicity.

“Yes, I would have done it again, because offences against my people… are many times as bad.”

His attacks were “based on goodness, not evil”, he added.

While he will likely be kept behind bars for the rest of his life, Breivik’s main objective is to prove he is sane, a judgment he sees as vindicating his anti-Muslim, anti-immigration cause.

He has said being labelled insane would be a “fate worse than death”.

If found guilty and sane, Breivik faces a maximum 21-year sentence but could be held indefinitely if he is considered a continuing danger. If declared insane, he would go to a psychiatric institution indefinitely with periodic reviews.

Before yesterday’s statement, Breivik had promised to be sensitive to victims and tone down his rhetoric. But the court audience, including survivors, shifted in their chairs, rolled their eyes, and murmured with impatience during his speech.

He ignored the repeated pleas of an angry judge to stop talking. When Breivik started talking about Japan and South Korea as role models, the judge asked him “to limit himself to Norwegian issues.”

Breivik’s testimony, which will go on for five days, will not be broadcast on television due to concerns that the gunman could use the trial as propaganda for his violent cause.

“He is getting what he wants and I don’t want to be a part of that,” survivor Hildegunn Fallang said.

“Your arrest will mark the initiation of the propaganda phase,” Breivik wrote in a manual for future attackers, part of a 1,500-page manifesto he posted online before the attacks. “Your trial offers you a stage to the world.”

Breivik appeared for the first time in court on Monday, giving a clenched-fist salute, smirking at the court and pleading not guilty in a trial, set to last 10 weeks, that threatens to showcase his anti-Islamic views.

Breivik listened impassively for hours as prosecutors read out an indictment detailing how he massacred teenagers trapped on a island resort outside Oslo. He only shed tears when the court later showed one of his propaganda videos.

Breivik shot most of his victims several times, often using the first shot to take down his target then delivering a shot to the head. His youngest victim was 14. He later surrendered as “commander of the Norwegian resistance movement”.

More than 200 people sat in the specially built courtroom, while about 700 attack survivors and family members of victims watched on closed-circuit video around the country.

His defence team has called 29 witnesses to argue Breivik was sane, including Mullah Krekar, the founder of Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, who was recently jailed in Norway for making death threats, and “Fjordman”, a right-wing blogger who influenced Breivik.

An initial psychiatric evaluation concluded that Breivik was criminally insane while a second, completed in the past week, found no evidence of psychosis. Resolving this conflict could be the five-judge panel’s major decision.

Lay judges

*All cases heard before the Norwegian courts are presided over by a professional judge.

But they are assisted by non-professionals appointed as lay judges to rule over both criminal and civil cases.

The system ensures that citizens who do not have a law qualification play a key role in the legal system.

The case of mass killer Anders Breivik is being heard by a panel of two professional judges and three lay judges.

Thomas Indreboe was removed as a lay judge in the case after comments he made on Facebook following the massacre, which called for the perpetrator to face the death penalty.

Lay judges are selected by municipal councils for four years at a time. In the district courts, they sit on the bench. In the Court of Appeal they sit on the bench or in the jury box.

Anyone selected as a lay judge is obliged to accept the office.

Certain occupational groups are exempt, such as judges, police officers and prosecutors. There are also restrictions for those with a criminal record.