OSLO, Norway – A trial that has riveted Norway for 10 weeks is coming to an end Friday. Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik must then wait a month or two for a ruling by the Oslo district court.
Since his guilt is not in question – Breivik admits he killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting massacre on July 22 – the key issue is whether the self-styled anti-Muslim militant will be ruled insane. If so he cannot be sentenced to prison but will be committed to compulsory psychiatric care, possibly for the rest of his life.
Global News takes a look at some of the key moments in the trial, which started on April 16 in a purpose-built courtroom in Oslo’s district court.
Killer’s tears
On the first day Breivik cried. It’s the only time he showed any emotion during the trial. The tears rolled down his cheeks when prosecutors showed a YouTube video he posted online before the attacks, outlining his perception that Muslims are colonizing Europe and that Christian Europeans will rise up in armed revolt. Breivik’s defence lawyer Geir Lippestad said that the 33-year-old Norwegian was moved by being reminded of his self-imposed mission to “save Europe from an ongoing war.”
Defiant salute
For the first two days Breivik greeted the court with his own version of a fascist salute. He stopped after his lawyers told him that the victims’ families found it offensive. On the penultimate day, after prosecutors asked for an insanity ruling that he rejected, the salute was back. Defiantly, Breivik thrust out his right arm with a clenched fist. This time he directed it straight at the prosecutors.
Horrific testimony
Survivors of the bombing in Oslo and the shooting massacre on Utoya island gave harrowing accounts of Breivik’s rampage. But the most gruesome testimony was from the gunman himself. Sparing no detail, he took a shocked courtroom through his killing spree on Utoya, victim by victim, bullet by bullet. His voice never cracked. His facial expression remained blank. Breivik’s utter lack of emotion and empathy was seen by some psychiatrists as a symptom of a deep mental illness. Breivik said he had prepared himself to keep his composure through meditation.
TIMELINE: NORWAY MASSACRE TRIAL
Shoe-thrower
It was the only outburst of anger during the entire trial: An Iraqi man whose brother was killed on Utoya took off his shoe and tossed it at Breivik on May 11, hitting one of his defence lawyers. The hearing was briefly suspended as the man was led out of the court, crying. Besides that incident, the relatives of victims kept remarkably calm, saying they wanted to respect the judicial process. Some said Breivik must not have any opportunity to claim he didn’t get a fair trial when it’s all over.
Psychiatric feud
The last weeks of the trial focused on Breivik’s mental state. Two teams of court-appointed psychiatrists presented clashing views. Other experts were called in to give their opinion. Prosecutors finally said there was enough doubt about whether Breivik is psychotic that Norwegian rules required them to call for an insanity ruling. Breivik, who claims he is a political militant, said during the trial that being sent to an insane asylum would be the worst thing that could happen to him and accused Norwegian authorities of trying to cast him as sick to deflate his political views. His defence lawyers rebutted the insanity claim Friday.
What’s next?
The five-judge panel has not set the date of the ruling yet but it’s not going to be before July 20. If the court agrees with the prosecution’s assertion that Breivik is insane, they cannot impose a prison sentence but will commit him to compulsory psychiatric care. If declared criminally sane he would likely face the maximum prison sentence in Norway: 21 years. However, he could be held longer under a provision designed to keep violent offenders locked up for as long as they are considered a menace to society. Breivik has said he would not appeal if given a prison term.
Since Breivik has admitted to the bomb-and-gun attacks on July 22, the self-styled anti-Muslim militant’s mental state has been the key focus of the 10-week trial.
Nevertheless, Breivik’s defence lawyer Geir Lippestad requested that the 32-year-old Norwegian be acquitted or given the mildest possible prison term for the country’s worst peacetime massacre. The plea for acquittal was made out of principle, without any realistic chance of success: Breivik claims he acted in defence of his nation and that the killings were therefore justified.
Also Friday, relatives of some of those killed tried to put their loss in words. Kirsti Loevlie, whose 30-year-old daughter Hanne was killed by the bomb, moved the court room to tears when she described the shock of finding out her daughter was dead. The grief of cleaning out her room. The first Christmas without her.
Still, Loevlie said she felt a need to attend the trial, seeing Breivik in a position where he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore.
“I am not going to be afraid of this man,” Loevlie said. “I decided I would go to court. I felt I owed it to Hanne.”
The court room burst out in applause and audible sobs as she finished her statement.
Breivik remained motionless, his face blank.
In his closing arguments, Lippestad reiterated that Breivik accepts that he set off a bomb outside a government high-rise and then gunned down dozens of teenagers at a Labor Party youth camp in the way that the attacks were described in court.
“That little, safe Norway would be hit by such a terror attack is almost impossible to understand,” Lippestad said. And that helps explain why psychiatric experts reached different conclusions about Breivik’s mental state, he added.
Lippestad tried to prove to the court that Breivik’s claims of being a resistance fighter in a struggle to protect Norway and Europe from being colonized by Muslims are not delusional, but part of a political view shared by other right-wing extremists.
He also disputed assertions by one team of psychiatrists that the driving force behind Breivik’s attacks was a psychotic impulse to kill, rather than a political ideology.
“July 22 was an inferno of violence,” Lippestad said. “But we must also look at how he carried out the attacks to see whether it was violence in itself or radical politics that was the cause.”
“He realized that it is wrong to kill but he chose to kill. That’s what terrorists do,” Lippestad said. “The ends justify the means. You don’t understand this if you don’t understand the culture of right-wing extremists.”
When Breivik talks about a civil war he’s not fantasizing about tanks and soldiers in the forest, but referring to a low-intensity struggle he believes will last for 60 years, Lippestad said.
“None of us know what Europe will look like in 60 years,” Lippestad said. “Who would have thought 10 years ago that a right-wing extremist party in Greece would get 10 per cent in the election now?”
Two teams of psychiatrists reached opposite conclusions about Breivik’s mental health. The first team diagnosed him with “paranoid schizophrenia,” a serious mental illness. The second team found him legally sane, saying he suffers from a dissocial and narcissistic personality disorder, but is not psychotic.
Prosecutors on Thursday called for an insanity ruling, saying there was enough doubt about Breivik’s mental state to preclude a prison sentence.
The five-judge panel is expected to make a ruling in July or August. If deemed mentally competent, Breivik would likely be given Norway’s maximum prison term of 21 years. A sentence can be extended beyond that if a prisoner is considered a menace to society. If declared insane, he would be committed to a mental institution for as long as he’s considered sick and dangerous to others. Prosecutors suggested Thursday that could mean he would be held for the rest of his life.
Lippestad’s otherwise focused statement ended on a confusing note when he asked the court for the most lenient possible prison sentence for his client. After being corrected by Breivik, Lippestad said the defence asks for an acquittal or a lenient sentence, but primarily wants the court to reject the insanity claim.
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