Anders Behring Breivik to tell Norway trial he regrets 'not going further'
3:14PM BST 10 Apr 2012 | Telegraph.UK
Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, whose trial for the killing of 77 people in Norway last July is to begin on Monday, plans to tell the court he regrets "not going further", his lawyer said Tuesday.
"This will be extremely difficult, an enormous challenge to listen to his explanations," Geir Lippestad told reporters. "He will not only defend (his actions) but will also lament, I think, not going further."
Mr Lippestad was speaking after a new psychiatric examination has found that Breivik is not criminally insane, contradicting an earlier assessment.
"The experts' main conclusion is that the accused, Anders Behring Breivik, is not considered to have been psychotic at the time of the actions on July 22, 2011," the Oslo district court said in a statement which reopens the debate on whether the self-confessed killer can be sent to prison.
"That means that he is considered criminally responsible at the time of the crime."
Anders Breivik: Habeus Mentem :: Right to Legal Sanity (21:04) |
The new evaluation counters the findings of an initial probe that found Breivik was suffering from "paranoid schizophrenia," which meant he would most likely be sentenced to psychiatric care instead of prison.
The 33-year-old right-wing extremist also said he was "pleased" with the results of the new psychiatric probe.
"His first reaction was that he was pleased with the conclusion" of the new expert report, Lippestad told reporters after discussing the new findings with his client.
"He also said he was not surprised, that he had been expecting this conclusion," the lawyer added.
On July 22, Breivik first set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people, before travelling to the small island of Utoeya northwest of the capital where he spent more than an hour methodically shooting and killing another 69 people, mostly teenagers.
The victims had been attending a summer camp hosted by the ruling Labour Party's youth organisation.
The conclusions of the second psychiatric evaluation, which was ordered by an Oslo court amid an outcry over the initial exam findings, were published just six days before the Breivik's trial is set to start.
In the end however, it will be up to the Oslo court judges to determine his mental state when they publish their verdict around mid-July, thus deciding whether he will be locked up in a closed psychiatric ward or sent to prison.
» » » » [Telegraph]
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