Psychiatry board claims impartiality
11-12-07
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Attention turns to online extremists
11-12-07
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Anti-Immigration Politician on leave after death threats
11-12-06
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Experts challenge insanity diagnosis
11-12-05
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Breivik ‘offended’ by insanity claim
11-11-29
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Breivik declared criminally insane
11-11-29
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Breivik’s ‘altered sense of reality’
11-11-15
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Psychiatry board claims impartiality
December 7, 2011 | Nina Burgland | News in English.NO
CBN: Breivik & Norway: The Failed Ideology of Multiculturalism & Welfare (03:58) |
Members of a psychiatric review board charged with evaluating a controversial insanity diagnosis for confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik believe they’re all impartial, even though one key member has been referred to as a “close friend” of one of those behind the diagnosis. Now the court has to agree.
Court administrators had themselves questioned the impartiality of the board (Den rettsmedisinske kommisjon – forensic medical commission) after it emerged that the psychiatrist leading the work on the Breivik diagnosis, Karl Heinrik Melle, is an old friend and colleague of Torgeir Husby. Now Melle is poised to evaluate the insanity diagnosis that psychiatrists Husby and Synne Sørheim declared after interviewing and observing Breivik over 36 hours during 13 meetings.
The diagnosis has set off a storm of criticism and debate because it means Breivik, who killed 77 persons in his July 22 attacks, may avoid a prison term and instead be committed to a psychiatric institution. Neither Husby nor Sørheim will comment on the criticism but Husby has said both he and Sørheim were in complete agreement on their diagnosis and had no doubts.
On Wednesday afternoon, the commission responded to questions about Melle’s impartiality and their own competence. “We maintain our earlier evaluation that the seven members of the commission, who themselves believe they’re impartial, remain so, and are capable of handling the report from Torgeir Husby and Synne Sørheim,” commission leader Tarjei Rygnestad told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).
The commission has forwarded that conclusion to the court, which will examine ties between Husby, Sørheim and commission members. Newspaper Aftenposten reported on Tuesday that Husby called Melle “a close colleague and one of my closest friends” in an interview in 2009. Now Husby claims he hasn’t seen Melle for five years and may have been misquoted two years ago. The two worked together in Trondheim from 1989 until 1994.
Meanwhile, the July 22 Commission investigating the emergency response to Breivik’s attacks is calling for help from the public in tracking the police response in chronological order. Commission leader Alexandra Bech Gjørv has asked anyone with photos or video taken during the time when Breivik was carrying out his massacre on the island of Utøya to share them with her group, claiming it can help them track the police reaction.
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Attention turns to online extremists
December 7, 2011 | Nina Burgland | News in English.NO
Oslo Police Report: 83 of 86 Rapes in Oslo, last 5 years committed by Non-Western Males (02:17) |
Justice Minister Grete Faremo is promising to boost resources for police investigators trying to monitor online extremists who are active on radical right-wing websites. She admits police haven’t done a good enough job in following the kind of online discussion groups in which confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik has said he was active.
“We must intensify the research, so that police can better understand what’s happening on the Internet,” Faremo said after a conference this week on radical and violent extremism. She promised more support for surveillance of open sources on the Internet, where forms of hateful ideology spread freely.
Various government ministries have also proposed a long list of measures to monitor radicals and prevent violence, from establishment of a resource group for researchers to new means of international cooperation.
Holding extremists responsible
Breivik’s defense attorney Geir Lippestad, meanwhile, has demanded that some of the main online anti-immigration activists whom Breivik followed and admired be held accountable for the influence Lippestad claims they had on Breivik.
Lippestad told newspaper VG that he especially wanted to summon the blogger Peder Jensen, better known as “Fjordman,” to testify at Breivik’s trial next spring. Lippestad believes Jensen and others like him must share responsibility that a man now declared criminally insane went on the attack July 22 and killed 77 persons.
Newspaper Dagsavisen reported Wednesday that another Norwegian website, vepsen.org (external link, mostly in Norwegian), has a goal of revealing extremist circles and that police apparently were unaware of much of what Jensen has published when they questioned him shortly after the attacks.
Fjordman’s inspiration, and defense
Vepsen, which itself states that its goal is to fight violent and racist movements, has now revealed an entry by Fjordman/Jensen published on the anti-Islamic website Gates of Vienna two months before Breivik bombed Norway’s government headquarters and set off a massacre on the island of Utøya. In it, Jensen wrote about “preparing for Ragnarök (mayhem).” Jensen also has written that Norwegian politicians and cultural officials have allied themselves with Islamic forces to wipe out Norwegian culture, spoken highly of ethnic cleansing and warned that Europe was heading for a “bloody civil war” over multi-culturalism.
Breivik was so taken by Jensen’s rhetoric that he published 38 of Fjordman/Jensen’s essays in full in his own so-called manifesto, released just before he launched his attacks. Breivik hailed Fjordman as “probably the most talented essay writer on the European right.” He referred to Fjordman 111 times in the manifesto.
Police did raid Jensen’s home and seized his computer shortly after the July attacks, but he was not arrested. Lippestad agrees that Jensen can’t be criminally liable for Breivik’s attacks, but adds: “It’s too easy to raise your hands and say ‘I didn’t know that someone could do what Anders Behring Breivik did.’ You have a responsibility when you express yourself in extreme ways.”
Dagsavisen reported that Jensen/Fjordman has mostly gone underground because he feels persecuted. In a commentary published in newspaper Aftenposten in October, though, he complained about the police raid on his home, distanced himself from Breivik and claimed he couldn’t be responsible for what a “disturbed” person did. He sent an e-mail to VG this week saying he didn’t see any reason at all to blame Breivik’s attacks on others.
“He has moreover been declared insane by professionals,” Jensen/Fjordman wrote. “You can’t hold others responsible for what insane persons do, persons you never have met.”
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Anti-Immigration Politician on Leave After Death Threats
December 6, 2011 | Nina Burgland | News In English.NO
Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a Member of Parliament for the conservative Progress Party, has been placed on leave after receiving death threats and warnings of severe bodily injury. The threats are linked to his political views questioning the merits of immigration.
Tybring-Gjedde has been among those accused of inflammatory rhetoric against immigration, not least in a column he wrote last year that questioned whether the emergence of a multi-cultural society in Norway was coming at the expense of Norwegian culture. When a Norwegian right-wing extremist, who once had been a member of the Progress Party, used the emergence of a multi-cultural society to justify his deadly terrorist attacks in July, both Tybring-Gjedde and his party were criticized for inciting such extremism. Party leader Siv Jensen later agreed that “a new form of debate” on immigration would emerge, but firmly denied the party should be tied in any way to the terrorist attacks themselves.
Some, however, have apparently continued to hold Tybring-Gjedde responsible and he’s been the subject of threats since the attacks were carried out on July 22. Both he and his family are now under police protection, with guards outside their house and occasional police escorts.
“It’s a terrible situation to be afraid all the time,” Tybring-Gjedde’s wife Ingvil told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). She and her husband feel they’ve been unfairly subject to harsh characterizations by officials of both the Labour Party and its youth organization AUF, which was the main target of the terrorist on July 22. Just days after they spoke disparagingly of the Progress Party at a recent conference, came a newspaper commentary in which Tybring-Gjedde was lumped together with other right-wing extremists as “søppelmennesker” (literally, garbage-people, or skumbags). That’s when Tybring-Gjedde went on sick leave, suffering from stress and memory loss.
The threats against Tybring-Gjedde have come during a time when general Norwegian attitudes towards immigration have become more positive. His wife issued a plea that those skeptical towards immigration must still be allowed to speak without fear of threats, and she called on the media to refrain from personal characterizations. Tybring-Gjedde himself also thinks Norwegian politicians must be allowed to express their views without being threatened.
He’s by no means the only Norwegian politician to receive threats, though. Erna Solberg, leader of the Conservative Party, also had police protection after being threatened during expulsion efforts against Mullah Krekar. Former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik received threats from a convict from Tanzania, and Finance Minister Sigbjørn Johnsen received death threats earlier this year as well.
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Experts challenge insanity diagnosis
December 5, 2011 | Nina Burgland | News In English.NO
Far-Right Russians cite Breivik as hero (02:44) |
More psychiatrists are challenging last week’s declaration by court-appointed colleagues that confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik is insane and therefore can’t be punished with a normal prison term. Meanwhile, police have wrapped up questioning of Breivik’s older half-sister as they continue to investigate his past.
Both police investigators and Breivik’s defense counsel have been in southern California after Breivik’s half-sister agreed to answer questions. She was among the few who had contact with Breivik in the time leading up to his attacks that killed 77 persons in July. She also reportedly was worried about him, and had expressed concern to their mother. Police are now expected to question Breivik’s estranged father, who lives in France.
It’s the insanity declaration, though, that continues to stir debate and dominate headlines in Norway, with a steady stream of psychiatric and legal experts questioning its validity. Mental health declarations made by court-appointed psychiatrists are routinely accepted by the judiciary, but this one is generating so much criticism that court officials may need to obtain a second opinion.
“I can’t see any other solution than the court appointing new psychiatrists (to evaluate Breivik),” Dr Arne Thorvik, a psychiatrist with 19 years of experience in working with the legal system, told newspaper Aftenposten on Monday.
Lack of documentation
Thorvik is among the latest to read through the 243-page report prepared by the court-appointed psychiatrists Synne Sørheim and Torgeir Husby. They concluded that Breivik suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and psychosis but they won’t publicly comment on the contents of their report, apart from Husby’s general comments made upon delivery of the report that he and Sørheim had no doubts about their diagnosis and were in full agreement.
Thorvik and colleague Svenn Torgersen, asked by Aftenposten to evaluate Husby’s and Sørheim’s report, claim it lacks documentation for their insanity diagnosis. They also dispute whether Breivik’s delusions can be characterized as “bizarre” and they question whether he is paranoid schizophrenic or paranoid psychotic.
“I can’t find any documentation of the ‘bizarre’ delusions,” Torgersen told Aftenposten. He referred to a request from Breivik to dig up the remains of an old Viking king for DNA testing to see who among living Norwegians has the most similar DNA today. “This was called ‘bizarre” but it’s not,” Torgersen said. “It’s fully possible, has been done in Asia to confirm descendants of Genghis Khan, and isn’t science fiction. It’s today’s science.” Thorvik also called it a “weakness” that the report didn’t look for other clarification of Breivik’s statements than psychosis.
More criticism
Other psychiatrists already have challenged the report, which remains subject to a quality evaluation by a state commission before the court will determine whether to accept it. The other critics cite the report’s failure to address Breivik’s political ideology and online activity, whether he was functional and able to take care of himself, whether he was or is suicidal and whether it’s a sign of psychosis if he believed he was under surveillance. Questions also have been raised over the two court-appointed psychiatrists’ methodology, including the fact that Sørheim never met with Breivik alone, for security reasons.
Others note that Breivik operated as a “classic terrorist,” planning his attacks for a long time and carrying them out in a cold and rational manner. That raises questions of whether all terrorists are thus psychotic. Breivik himself has been offended by the insanity claim and believes the psychiatrists have misunderstood him.
Thorvik believes the court must appoint new psychiatrists for another independent evaluation of Breivik. “If not, there will continue to be doubt about this conclusion,” he said. “It’s important for the future, for the many victims and survivors and not least for all the non-violent people with this diagnosis who are bothered by the report.”
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Breivik ‘offended’ by insanity claim
November 29, 2011 | Nina Burgland | News in English.NO
Anders Breivik: 'Labour Party Government failed the country' (00:32) |
Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old Norwegian charged with murdering 77 persons in July, told police he was “offended” by two court-appointed psychiatrists’ conclusion that he’s insane. Breivik claims he is sane and capable of standing trial for his crimes.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that Breivik was transported from his cell at the high-security Ila Prison in to the main police station at Grønland in Oslo Tuesday afternoon. Once there, he was told by his defense attorneys that the psychiatrists believe he is psychotic and long has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
That means he can’t be punished with a prison term for bombing Norway’s government headquarters on July 22 and then carrying out a massacre on the island of Utøya. He’s likely to instead be committed to a psychiatric institution, probably for life.
“He said he had feared that conclusion, but didn’t think it would come,” Hatlo said. “It didn’t appear that he accepted it.”
Breivik was once again being questioned by police Tuesday evening, after being given his insanity diagnosis. Court-appointed psychiatrists have determined, after 36 hours of interviewing Breivik this fall, that he is delusional and believes he’s a knight on a mission to wage war against those who allow multi-cultural societies.
Breivik has told his attorneys that he fears the insanity declaration will lead to his “character assassination” in the media.
NRK reported that the psychiatrists also believe there is great danger that Breivik, if ever released, would carry out new murders and acts of violence. They think he must expect psychiatric treatment and medication for the rest of his life.
They also labeled him as suicidal and capable of carrying out suicide bombings, for example. NRK said he could try to murder others and kill himself at the same time. They found no evidence, however, that his psychosis was induced by stimulants when he carried out the July bombing and massacre.
Breivik, who also was said to have had a difficult childhood, was determined to completely lack feelings of human empathy and is unable to understand the perspective his victims and society have on his attacks.
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Breivik declared criminally insane
November 29, 2011 | Nina Burgland | News in English.NO
Muslim Majority in Europe within 20 Years [01/01] |
Confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik was declared criminally insane (straffesrettslig utilregnelig) on Tuesday by the two psychiatrists appointed by the court to evaluate his mental health. The psychiatrists’ conclusion means Breivik will now likely be committed to a psychiatric institution for the rest of his life, but his trial in April will go forward as planned.
The psychiatrists found Breivik to be psychotic, both at the time he carried out his attacks on July 22 and while under their observation. According to some of their characterizations released Tuesday by prosecutors, Breivik “finds himself in his own delusional universe” where his “thoughts and acts” are driven by his delusions.
They believe he already had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia that escalated in the months leading up to the attacks that left 77 persons dead. He called the murders he carried out “executions,” committed “out of love for his people.”
His “grandiose and bizarre delusions” led him to describe himself to the court-appointed psychiatrists as “the most perfect knight since World War II.” They said he sees himself as “the future regent of Norway.”
The psychiatrists’ shared conclusion of insanity will not itself decide Breivik’s fate, but rather provides crucial professional advice to the court. Their diagnosis of psychosis, now subject to review by a forensic medical commission, creates a foundation for the decision the court will make on Breivik’s fate, with legal experts saying it’s seldom that such a court-ordered report is disregarded. His trial is still due to start April 16, because he still must be declared guilty or not guilty of the murders and destruction for which he is charged and to which he has confessed.
Prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh told reporters on Tuesday that when a person is declared insane, or psychotic, he or she cannot be sentenced to a prison term in Norway, nor to forvaring (indefinite preventive custody). Rather, if found guilty of the crimes for which he or she is charged, the defendant can be sentenced to “compulsory mental health care” and ordered to stay in a psychiatric institution, “to protect society from someone viewed as insane and dangerous.”
‘Cooperative’ and eager to talk
There was never much concern that Breivik would ever be set free. If he’d been declared criminally responsible for his attacks, he would have faced 21 years in prison and the preventive custody that also could last for the rest of his life. By being declared psychotic, he will likely be formally absolved of criminal penalty but committed to a psychiatric institution, also likely for the rest of his life.
When delivering their 243-page report on Breivik’s mental state, court -appointed psychiatrist Torgeir Husby told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that he and colleague Synne Sørheim had no doubts regarding their evaluation. They have had 13 conversations totaling 36 hours with Breivik since his arrest on July 22, when he immediately confessed to bombing Norway’s government headquarters in Oslo and carrying out a massacre on the island of Utøya.
Husby said their work was “very comprehensive and difficult” but he added that Breivik was “very cooperative and interested in talking.” Husby said that in their last conversation last week, Breivik told him that he’d miss their talks.
The report Husby and Sørheim delivered set records itself, for its length and detail. Pål Grøndahl, a court psychologist himself and researcher at the University of Oslo, told NRK that it was “probably the longest court-ordered psychiatric report ever prepared in Norway’s history.”
Focus on Breivik’s childhood and youth
Husby explained its length by saying he and Sørheim “wanted to understand as well as we could” how Breivik thought and observed the world around him. The report concentrated on Breivik’s childhood, when conditions in the home of his divorced mother prompted concern from Norway’s child protective services at the time. On Monday, NRK reported that Breivik was believed to have been the victim of “assaults of a sexual character” when he was four years old. He was never removed from his mother’s care, however, and the home he shared with her and an older half-sister was described as clean and orderly.
With the eyes of the world on Oslo, given international interest in the July 22 attacks, the court system has wanted to make sure Breivik is subject to the most fair and humane legal process as possible. His trial is set to last 10 weeks.
Breivik’s defense attorney Geir Lippestad, currently in California gathering evidence believed tied to Breivik’ childhood, has long referred to Breivik’s “altered state of reality” and even told reporters shortly after his arrest that he thought Breivik was “insane.”
Breivik has never expressed any regret for his actions, expressing rather that he felt his attacks were necessary to launch a war against those who are allowing the creation of multi-cultural societies in Europe. In Norway, his main target was the Labour Party, which traditionally has maintained an open view on immigration and currently leads the country’s left-center coalition government. Lippestad said earlier this week that the only concern Breivik seemed to have about the psychiatrists’ report was that it would subject him to “character assassination.”
Breivik also has repeatedly referred to himself as the commander of a Norwegian resistance movement against the Islamification of Norway and Europe. He also has referred himself as Knight Chief Justice in the Knights Templar Europe and the Knights Templar Norway, but police believe he acted alone.
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Breivik’s ‘altered sense of reality’
November 15, 2011 | Nina Burgland | News in English.NO
Anders Breivik: One cannot allow one's country to be colonised by Muslims (01:09) |
Norwegian reaction ranged from relief to disgust following confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik’s latest day in court. His appearance at a custody hearing, before an audience this time, seemed to confirm what his defense attorney has long called Breivik’s “altered sense of reality.”
The 32-year-old Norwegian who has admitted to bombing Norway’s government headquarters and carrying out a massacre on the island of Utøya offered a glimpse on Monday of how he’s living in a world of his own. “He has a completely different understanding of reality,” repeated Breivik’s defense lawyer, Geir Lippestad, who earlier claimed his client was “insane” but since has regretted that remark. “It’s his impression that both executions and torture are common things to use.”
Norwegian media outlets were full of reports on Tuesday about Breivik’s appearance at another custody hearing Monday that was the first one to be open to the public. In the courtroom were many survivors of his attacks and some said later that it was a relief to actually see him in Norway’s strongest form of police custody. Some said it helped them feel safer: One young survivor of the massacre on Utøya had noted that the last time he saw Breivik, he was marching around the island in his imitation police uniform, shooting people. Now the survivor has another mental image of Breivik, in civilian dress and at the mercy of the court.
Sondre Lindhagen Nilssen, another teenaged survivor from the coastal town of Kragerø, also said it helped to see Breivik. “He wasn’t as frightening,” Nilssen told Aftenposten.no. “I just saw a totally confused person who doesn’t have the faintest contact with reality.”
Commentators used adjectives like “calm, controlled,” even “confident” to describe Breivik, though, noting how his well-groomed imaged defied the bizarre statements that came out of his mouth. Newspaper Aftenposten published this version of his first statements in court:
“When two parties meet, it’s normal that both are allowed to present themselves,” Breivik began, speaking in a low monotone. “I have, until now, not had permission to do so. I will do so now. I am a military commander in the Norwegian resistance movement. And a Knight Chief Justice in the Knights Templar Norway and Knights Templar Europe.”
He then questioned the competence of Judge Torkjel Nesheim “because (the judge) has a mandate from organizations that support multi-culturalism in Norway. Multi-culturalism is an anti-Norwegian hate ideology designed to destruct the Norwegian ethnic group.” He got as far as adding that “destructing the Norwegian ethnic group is the same as ethnic cleansing…” before the judge cut him off, saying the court only wanted to hear from Breivik about his impressions of prison life.
Breivik later said he had no problems with the conditions of his custody, but said he “doesn’t accept” his imprisonment because he’s a “military commander.” He recommended Norwegian police look to Saudi Arabia for other “methods of torture.” The judge cut him off several times, refusing to allow Breivik to use the hearing as a “soapbox” to spread his beliefs. As reported earlier, his request to directly address survivors and victims’ families was denied.
Breivik was wearing a dark suit, shirt and tie, over what likely was a bullet-proof vest since now he’s the one fearing for his safety. Police clearly didn’t want to take any chances with an assassination attempt, given the high security around his transport and all the armed guards around him.
‘Dignified and orderly’
One of the many lawyers representing survivors and victims’ families, Siv Hallgren, told news bureau NTB that all her clients who attended the hearing felt it was the right thing to do. “It was okay to see the assailant and it was all very dignified and orderly,” Hallgren told NTB, adding that the hearing didn’t turn into the media circus many feared.
The head of the survivors’ support group didn’t agree, and most of the group’s members stayed away out of sheer disgust. One survivor, 20-year-old Bjørn Ihler, who was wounded by Breivik, however, had traveled over from college in Liverpool to attend the hearing. Ihler even wants to have a debate with Breivik, and doesn’t want to call him “a monster” as others have.
“Calling him a monster dehumanizes him and excuses, in a way, what he has done,” Ihler told Afternposten. “I look forward, actually, to meet a real person … and hear him say what he’s written. I want to meet him in an open debate as soon as possible.”
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