Norway Killer Breivik Claims ‘Spectacular Political Attack’

The man who has admitted the mass killings of 77 people in Norway last year has told a court he acted out of “goodness, not evil” in order to “defend his country”. “I have carried out the most spectacular and sophisticated attack on Europe since World War II,” Anders Behring Breivik told the court.

Breivik read his statement in closed court a day after declaring that he had carried out the massacre but was not guilty because the killings had been necessary. He has acknowledged carrying out the killings but pleaded “not guilty” on terror charges, as his trial got under way in Oslo.

As his trial opened earlier in the day, he raised a clenched fist and said he did not recognize the authority of the court. Anders Behring Breivik attacked a youth camp organized by the governing Labour party on the island of Utoeya, after setting off a car bomb in the capital.

He told the court he “acknowledged” the acts committed, but said he did not accept criminal responsibility. Dressed in a dark suit and sporting a thin beard along his jawline, Breivik smiled as a guard removed his handcuffs in the crowded court room.

Breivik arrived in court for the morning’s opening session in Oslo amid tight security and massive media attention, with proceedings set to focus on whether or not he is legally sane. Breivik told Judge Wenche Behring, “You have your mandate from political parties who support multiculturalism.”

Breivik was charged last month with committing acts of terror and voluntary homicide. He is accused of killing eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo and then going to Utoya Island outside the city and systematically gunning down 69 more people, many of them teens and young adults.

He also said he did not recognise the authority of Judge Arntzen, claiming she was friends with the sister of former Prime Minister and Labour party leader Gro Harlem Brundtland. Entering his plea on Monday, he said he had acted in self-defence. His lawyers had earlier said he would argue that his actions were “cruel but necessary”.

- Asian Tribune –

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