Victims' relatives walk out as trial ends with killer demanding to be set free and asking court to reject insanity claim
The trial of Anders Behring Breivik has ended with the confessed mass killer demanding to be set free and vowing that history would exonerate him for a bomb and gun rampage that killed 77 people.
As the self-styled anti-Muslim militant spoke for the last time in the 10-week proceedings, around 30 relatives of his victims walked out of the courtroom as he spoke.
In a rambling statement, Breivik lashed out at everything he perceived to be wrong with the world, from non-ethnic Norwegians representing the country in the Eurovision song contest to the sexually liberated lifestyle of the characters in the American TV show Sex and the City.
He also claimed fellow rightwing extremists were behind a small amount of explosives found outside a Swedish nuclear plant this week. The Swedish police spokesman Tommy Nyman had no comment, adding "especially not if he says it".
While some of Breivik's comments prompted laughter in the Oslo court, gravity returned when he reiterated his motive for bombing a government building in Oslo, killing eight, and hunting down teenagers at the Labour party's youth camp on Utøya island. Sixty-nine people died and dozens more were injured in one of the worst peacetime shooting massacres by a single gunman.
"History shows that you have to commit a small barbarism to prevent a bigger barbarism," the 33-year-old Norwegian said.
"The attacks on July 22 were preventive attacks to defend the indigenous Norwegian people," he said. "I therefore demand to be acquitted."
Breivik claims the governing Labour party has betrayed the country by accepting Muslim immigrants and must be stopped before turning Norway into what he called a "multiculturalist hell".
On Wednesday, the defence lawyer Geir Lippestad had tried to prove his client was sane – the key issue to be resolved in the trial since Breivik admits the attacks.
Lippestad also formally entered a plea for acquittal, but it was made out of principle without any realistic chance of success.
Kirsti Loevlie, whose 30-year-old daughter Hanne was killed by the bomb, moved the courtroom to tears on Friday when she described the shock of finding out her daughter was dead. She recalled the grief of cleaning out her daughter's room and the first Christmas without her.
Loevlie said she felt a need to attend the trial and see Breivik in a position where he couldn't hurt anyone any more.
"I am not going to be afraid of this man," she said. "I decided I would go to court. I felt I owed it to Hanne."
The courtroom burst out in applause and audible sobs as she finished her statement.
Breivik remained motionless, his face blank.
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 colonised by Muslims were not delusional, but part of a political view shared by other rightwing extremists.
"He realised 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 rightwing extremists."
When Breivik talked about a civil war he was not fantasising about tanks and soldiers in the forest, but referring to a low-intensity struggle he believed would 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 rightwing extremist party in Greece would get 10% 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 suffered from a dissocial and narcissistic personality disorder, but was 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 panel of five judges will announce its ruling on 24 August, said the chief judge, Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen.
If deemed mentally competent, Breivik is likely to 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 was considered sick and dangerous to others. Prosecutors suggested on Thursday that could mean Breivik would be held for the rest of his life.
When Lippestad asked the court for the most lenient possible prison sentence for his client, he was corrected by Breivik. Lippestad then said the defence asked for an acquittal or a lenient sentence, but primarily wanted the court to reject the insanity claim.