Gunman tells Oslo court he would rather face capital punishment than the maximum sentence of 21 years
Anders Behring Breivik would rather be executed than receive Norway's "pathetic" maximum punishment of 21 years in jail for the bomb and gun attacks that left 77 dead last summer, he told a court on Wednesday.
"There are only two just and fair outcomes in this case," he told Oslo central court: "Acquittal or capital punishment."
He said he didn't want to be killed, but said he would "respect" the decision. "I consider 21 years of prison as a pathetic punishment," he said, later describing himself as a "militant Christian" who believed in the afterlife.
Norway abolished the death penalty in peacetime in 1905 and for war crimes in 1979. On Tuesday, one of the five original judges trying the case was dismissed after it emerged he had written on Facebook that the death penalty was the "only just thing to do" with Breivik.
During his second day in the witness box, the 33-year-old was questioned about his claims to be part of a militant anti-Islamist network founded in London in 2002 called Knights Templar, which the prosecution does not believe exists. Breivik is adamant that it does – and that police haven't tried hard enough to uncover it.
He also claimed he knew of two other "one-man cells" in Norway that could attack at any time.
Declaring himself an "anti-Nazi", Breivik said Knights Templar had made a conscious decision to distance itself from national socialism "because it was quite blood-stained". He added: "We felt it completely essential to do so. For the extreme right to ever be able to prevail in Europe in the future, one had to distance oneself from the old-school ideology."
The difference between him and Hitler, he said, was that "the pillar of National Socialism is expansionism; I am an isolationist". He was also "more liberal on ethnicity" than the Nazis, he added, suggesting he could accept it if "around 2%" of Norway's population was "non-indigenous".
The Knights Templar cultural identity was imported from Serbia, he said. The Serbs who died during the Nato bombing of Kosovo in 1999 had a "crusader" mentality to which he aspired. Questioned about his radicalisation, he said that the Serbian bombing was for him "the straw that broke the camel's back".
Breivik claims he travelled to London in April 2002 to meet three other "militant nationalists" to form the network, which borrowed the methodology of al-Qaida.
Establishing whether Knights Templar exists beyond Breivik's imagination is of key importance in legally determining his sanity, and whether he is sent to prison or compulsory psychiatric care for the massacre that shocked Norway on 22 July last year.
Though the longest sentence the court could impose is 21 years, Breivik could be locked up for life if there was "considerable danger" he could strike again. The court always fixes a timeframe that may not exceed 21 years, but when that expires, the offender may be reassessed.
The prosecution spent the morning session on Wednesday asking Breivik about trips he made to Liberia and London in 2002. Breivik was questioned in detail about the three people he claimed to have met in London, but refused to reveal any details, including the identity of the "English protestant host" who became his "mentor". That man is named in his 1,801-page "compendium", or manifesto, as Richard the Lionheart.
He claimed that his visit to Liberia in April 2002 – backed up by passport checks carried out by police – was made to visit a Serbian war "hero" wanted for war crimes. He refused to reveal the man's name.
Breivik told the court he travelled to Liberia, which was at the time in the throes of a bloody civil war, with two cover stories. Arriving in the country, he says he told the Liberian authorities that he was working for the children's charity Unicef.
When he met two bodyguards who were to protect him during his stay, he told them he was there to buy blood diamonds, he claimed.
Breivik indicated that he saw himself a martyr who had "sacrificed himself" in order to inspire others to follow his example. True role models can achieve credibility through "an action, an operation" he said, comparing himself with "keyboard warriors" who spread their message via the internet.
He said: "I think the big problem for militant nationalists in Europe is that there have been very few role models since world war two. If a sofa general is to borrow tradition from al-Qaida and doesn't dare to do it himself but asks others to do it … he wouldn't have any credibility."
A person cannot "glorify martyrdom" among "rightist groups in Europe" if he doesn't have the "qualifications for promoting that tradition", he said. Anyone with "a backbone" could follow his example, he insisted, before adding, "maybe not women", then settling on "one in 10 women perhaps".
Asked by the prosecutor if he had gained credibility among such groups since the 22 July attacks, Breivik agreed, before adding: "It would be incorrect of me to say anything about that, but what is true is that there are many keyboard warriors who have tried to promote things that can improve us … but they face serious problems because it's difficult to promote martyrdom when you fear death yourself and you are afraid to fight yourself."
He contrasted his "operation" with the leftwing German terrorist group known as the Red Army Faction, or Baader Meinhof gang, who he said were atheists who did not want to die because they "didn't believe in the afterlife". He added: "That's what's unique about both militant nationalists and militant Islamists … we do believe in an afterlife, at least many of us [militant nationalists] do, because we are Christians."
The Knights Templar are not "Christian fundamentalists" he insisted, saying: "I'm only a little bit religious but preventing the 'deChristianisaton' of Norway and Europe is very important."
Breivik admits he set off a bomb outside the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight, then drove to Utøya island outside the capital and massacred 69 people in a shooting spree at the governing Labour party's youth summer camp. He said his victims, mostly teenagers, were not innocent but legitimate targets because they were representatives of a "multiculturalist" regime he claims is deconstructing Norway's national identity by allowing immigration.