Norway’s jail terms pathetic: Breivik

Norway’s prison terms are “pathetic”, mass killer Anders Behring Breivik declared yesterday in court, claiming the death penalty or a full acquittal were the “only logical outcomes” for his massacre of 77 people.

The right-wing fanatic said he does not fear death, and that militant nationalists in Europe have a lot to learn from al-Qaeda, including their methods and glorification of martyrdom.

“If I had feared death I would not have dared to carry out this operation,” he said, referring to his July 22 attacks — a bombing in downtown Oslo that killed eight people and a shooting massacre at a youth camp outside the Norwegian capital that killed 69.

Breivik’s comments, on the third day of his terror trial, came as he was pressed to give details on the anti-Muslim militant group he claims to belong to but which prosecutors say does not exist as he describes. Several unrelated groups claim part of the Knights Templar name Breivik uses.

The 33-year-old acknowledged that his supposed crusader network is “not an organisation in a conventional sense” but insisted it is real.

“It is not in my interest to shed light on details that could lead to arrests,” he said refusing to comment on the group’s alleged other members.

The issue is of key importance in determining Breivik’s sanity, and whether he is sent to prison or compulsory psychiatric care for the massacre.

If found sane, Breivik could face a maximum 21-year prison sentence or an alternate custody arrangement that would keep him locked up as long as he is considered a menace to society. If declared insane he would be committed to psychiatric care for as long as he is considered ill.

“I view 21 years in prison as a pathetic sentence,” Breivik said.

Asked if he would rather have received a death penalty — which does not exist in current Norwegian law — he said that made sense.

“I don’t wish for it but I would have respected that decision,” he said. “There are only two outcomes in this case that I had respected, that that is the death penalty or acquittal.”

Breivik claims to have carried out the attacks on behalf of the “Knights Templar”, which he described in a 1,500-page manual he posted online before the attacks as a militant nationalist group fighting a Muslim colonisation of Europe. Breivik said it exists but police had not uncovered it. The group consists of “independent cells”, he added, “and, therefore, in the long term will be a leaderless organisation.”

Prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh pressed him about details on the group, its members and its meetings. Breivik claimed to have met a Serb “war hero” living in exile during a trip to Liberia in 2002, but refused to identify him.

“What is it you’re getting at?” Breivik told the prosecutor, then said prosecutors want to “sow doubt over whether the KT network exists”.

The main point of his defence is to avoid an insanity ruling, which would deflate his political arguments. One psychiatric evaluation found him psychotic and “delusional”, while another found him mentally competent to be sent to prison.

His stance has angered victim support groups.

“I think what we are watching is the revelation of a sort of fantasy or a dream,” said Christin Bjelland, deputy head of a support group for survivors of the July 22 massacre.