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Subscribe to RSSAnders Breivik gave a defiant, closed-fist salute as he walked into the court room on the first day of his trial for 77 murders. ITN's Damon Green reports.
Updated at 12:25 p.m. ET: Militant Anders Behring Breivik admitted he killed 77 people in a massacre last July, but said he was pleading not guilty on the first day of a trial that threatens to turn into a "circus" showcasing his anti-Islamic views.
As he arrived in court - the early part of the session was broadcast on television - Breivik gave a salute, raising his arm with his fist clenched.
The 33-year-old said: "I do not recognize the Norwegian courts. You have received your mandate from political parties which support multiculturalism. I do not acknowledge the authority of the court."
The trial will turn on whether Breivik is found guilty or insane. If sane, he faces up to 21 years in prison; if deemed criminally insane, he would be committed to psychiatric care.
Shed tears
Listening impassively for hours as prosecutors read out an indictment detailing how he massacred teenagers trapped on a island resort outside Oslo, he only shed tears when the court later showed one of his propaganda videos.
Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
Anders Behring Breivik raises his fist as he arrives to courtroom for the first day of his trial in Oslo, Monday.
"I acknowledge the acts but not criminal guilt as I claim self defence," he added, seated in front of a bullet-proof glass wall.
Occasionally suppressing a yawn, cracking his knuckles and sipping water, he stared down at the indictment papers, following without visible emotion the list of his killings as the prosecutor read out each one. Some details were so graphic that Norwegian television bleeped out descriptions of the massacres.
Breivik shot most of his victims several times, often using the first shot to take down his target then following up with a shot to the head. His youngest victim was 14. He later surrendered as "commander of the Norwegian resistance movement".
Prosecutors played a recording of an emergency call made by one of the summer campers hiding in the bathroom of a cafe.
"There's shooting all the time, I've seen many injured. He's inside!" Renate Taarnes screamed, as 13 people in the cafe were shot dead. "He's coming ... he's coming," she said as shots could be heard in the background.
But Breivik only became tearful while watching a movie of still pictures accompanied by text of his vision of evils of "multiculturalism" and "Islamic demographic warfare".
"I think he feels sorry for himself," said Mette Yvonne Larsen, one of the lawyers representing victims. "His project didn't work out, that's why he's crying. He's not crying for the victims ... he's crying over his extremely childish film."
Heiko Junge / Pool via AFP - Getty Images
Rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik sheds a tear during his trial in Oslo courthouse as the court views a propaganda film he made.
The trial is scheduled to last 10 weeks and has raised fears that it could reopen wounds in Norway, a country that sees itself as a tolerant and peaceful society.
PhotoBlog: Anders Breivik in court
The "lone wolf" killer intends to say he was defending Norway against multiculturalism and Islam. He says his attacks were intended to punish "traitors" whose pro-immigration policies were adulterating Norwegian blood.
More than 200 people sat in the specially built courtroom while about 700 attack survivors and family members of victims watched on closed-circuit video around the country.
"It will be a tough time for many," survivor Vegard Groeslie Wennesland, 28, said outside the courtroom. "Last time I saw him in person he was shooting my friends."
Report: Threat from anti-jihadist extremists grows
Last July 22, Breivek set off a bomb in the centre of Oslo before heading to the youth camp on Utoeya, an island in a lake 25 miles outside the capital, gunning down his victims while police took more than an hour to get to the massacre site in the chaos that followed the bomb blast.
Disguised as a police officer, Breivik managed to lure some of his victims out of hiding, saying help had arrived. Other victims jumped into the lake, where he shot them in the water.
New details have emerged about the arrest of self-confessed Norwegian killer Anders Breivik, as well as the terror rampage left 76 people dead in the normally peaceful Scandinavian country. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.
Prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh spoke of the "panic and mortal fear in children, youths and adults" trapped on the island.
While video footage of the Oslo bomb blast was played to the court, victims and their families cried as but Breivik smiled on several occasions.
Prosecutors painted an image of a Breivik obsessed with the "World of Warcraft" computer game, prompting the judge to ask whether the game was violent. Breivik broke into a smile when the image of his online character was displayed.
An initial psychiatric evaluation concluded that Breivik was criminally insane while a second, completed in the past week, found no evidence of psychosis. Resolving this conflict could be the five-judge panel's major decision.
If found guilty and sane, Breivik faces a maximum 21-year sentence but could be held indefinitely if he is considered a continuing danger. If declared insane, he would be held in a psychiatric institution indefinitely with periodic reviews.
Meanwhile he has made clear he intends to make use of the trial to air his views when he testifies next week.
"Your arrest will mark the initiation of the propaganda phase," he wrote in a manual for future attackers, part of a 1,500-page manifesto he posted online, according to Reuters. "Your trial offers you a stage to the world."
In a recent letter seen by Norwegian newspaper VG, Breivik added: "The court case looks like it will be a circus ... it is an absolutely unique opportunity to explain the idea of (the manifesto) to the world."
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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That appears to be the aim of Breivik, who is scheduled to testify for about a week, starting on Tuesday.
Some would wonder at the sanity of the Court System in Norway. Why should he be testifying for a week?
Should he not be put on the stand to answer questions from the Defense and Prosecutor? Which should take less than two hours.
It is as if the courts want to prolong this trial as long as possible - maybe money involved or the Court Officials themselves want publicity - want to "bask in the limelight".
How did they come up with 21 years for murdering 77 people??? Do the Nordies have math anxiety? Come on....death on the chopping block in a public place is more appropriate. Send him to Saudi.....they'll do it for free in chop chop square. Let him sit in a cell for a few months, then chop his head off and into a bucket. I believe they call that "incentive training".
21 years for 77 murders??????
Wonder if my wife would like to take a trip there?
Death sentence! This f....ng zionist , jewish freemason piece of @!$%# deserves to die by torture! Death to him!
Where does it say that Breivik is a Jewish Freemason? He calls himself a Christian and holds attitides and beliefs typical of anti-multiculturalism, anti-immigration right wingers here in the US. Reading your posts filled with anti-semitic conspiracy theories, I'm surprised you aren't siding with him.
I am sure Rush Limbaugh has a secret admiration for this guy.
"If sane, he faces up to 21 years in prison." If I decide to go on a murderous rampage, I'll be doing it in Norway. I'll bet he gets internet privileges and catered lunches in prisson, too.
I hope that was a typo about him only getting a max of 21 years?!?!?!
They found an ideological connection between right wing bloggers and Islamists.
You must understand Norwegian culture before making some of these comments, Norway is a country like no other..$150 for a parking ticket... $2000 for a speeding ticket, plus you lose your drivers license for 6 months..income tax from 36% to 70%..rent a small apartment $2500 per month..and the cost of food is out of this world, you would be very lucky if anyone ever talks to you, they have no idea what to do with a murderer like this guy, no one in that country has enough balls or whatever to give him the penalty that he deserves..77 people is a lot of people...The government of the country is corrupt, with brainless politicians , the people are mentally broken..maybe someday they will fight to get their country back, as the people have no power.
Anders Behring Breivik is basically a Christian fundamentalist who sees himself as a cultural Christian and a modern day Crusader. He still has to explain why he chose his helpless victims from among the ranks of his own countrymen. Basically, Anders seems to be both a cultural radical and a Christian extremist who is in desperate pursuit of public recognition for his national cultural views. I personally fear we are going to see many more horrible tragedies like this before all of this growing religious rivalry is finally resolved in our world.
In any case, it is no longer my responsibility to solve the problems of these dangerous religious beliefs which increasingly infect our world. I have already done my best many times to alert the world to the ultimate nature of these dangerous religious infections, as well as propose reasonable solutions to the problem which everyone has basically ignored. So from here on out I leave it to others, and in particular to the various governments of our world, to finally resolve this growing problem of religious extremism sweeping the globe. Goodbye and good luck, everyone. You are definitely going to need it. - Rick Carter
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DO YOU WISH THAT WE SHOW UP ?????????????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHTytdRYRAs&feature=related
rick - I can assure you that Christians 1) do not advocate violence like this, 2) Do NOT consider this man to be a Christian since it goes against everything a Christian stands for.
People need to STOP judging Christianity based on the actions of a few wackos who CLAIM to be Christian. Christ laid out what being a "Christian" means in the New Testament. Look at what HE said and taught, NOT what people do. THAT is real Christianity.
Chas01c - I couldn't agree with you more. A Christian can sit there and take the slaps of Muslims and Jews, but yet when one Chrisitan critizes a Muslim or a Jew, hell breaks lose. The media is not helping either. Wake up (so called) Christians, and face what is happening to you.
Do not judge the Americans to harshly. They are just frightened by everything.
Apparently - Norwegians are too frightened to "man up" and put a "mad dog" killer to death.
Maybe you would be happy to see a man like Hitler rule your country.
Hitler was elected by frightened people wanting to put others down. In scandinavia we do not build up "mad dog" myths about killers, we expose them for the weaklings they are.
Why put them down ? We are not afraid of them, if they are locked away. You are.
Some people are willing to risk dying for democracy, others are willing to subvert democracy to defend it.
Well stated Torben. People from the political Right in the US don't want to face the dangers that Democracy brings. In order to enjoy broad civil liberties a society must accept that it leaves itself open to many dangers. Only the brave can live in a land that is free.
I seem to recall that there were more than a few QUISLINGS who were all too happy to let Hitler have his way in Norway back in the early 1940s, so don't get too smug and superior about things Torben.
My Lord did I read this article correctly or am my blind! He is only getting 21 yrs. if convicted!
You apparently didn't read far enough. Try to keep up.
Youins. I condemn the messenger, and certainly his tactics. But his message? I'm still waiting to see a meaningful disavowal on the part of "majority Muslims" of Islamofascism and the actions of its adherents. And I'd gladly trade removal of the few violent words in the Bible for a revamp of the Holy Khoran, in which one can still read directives to butcher the infidel. I studied in Europe years ago, before the regrettable demographic transitions, and actually thought of retiring there. With few exceptions (Portugal comes to mind), I 'd avoid most European metropolitan areas, for the same reasons that much of our own South West is no longer a travel destination for our family, not to mention Mexico, where I also took a degree and thoroughly enjoyed travel and the people, ---thirty years ago, that is. Europeans and north Americans yearn for much of the "simpler life" (excepting war years) that remains in less populated (read-invaded) areas, but is largely gone in the cities. Perhaps some good can come from the otherwise deplorable actions of Anders Breivik. I hope he and his supporters can have great success in political grandstanding at the trials. Certainly not for his violent actions, but for opposition to the Islamofascist fairy tales that the European social democracies are all too eager to ignore. Just sayin'. Aaltarboy.
The above "madness" is an ancient echo.
Recall Baruch Goldstein? (Massacred 29 people praying in a Mosque in Hebron.)
http://members.tripod.com/alabasters_archive/goldstein_significance.html
(I am not familiar with the source for this quote so take it as Internet.)
I put "madness" in quotes because his type of actions may not be those of someone that "snapped" but someone that displayed the lowest side of human attributes.
If there is a Satan, this guy is his brother. What a cold, evil bastard this guy is.. his eyes are are like bottomless pits....just a scary MFer...
The only thing that should be considered here is this: Is he sane? If so then life in prison or death, if not...then life in a psychiatric facility..either way his views stop with 'pure' intentions, no country is or will ever be pure...they have be diluted and distilled from many countrys for generations.
If he's found guilty he gets 21 yrs in prison
If hes found insane he gets psychiatric care
find him insane give him a frontal labotomy
end of him end of story
WOW!!!...Twenty one years for killing 77 people? Not bad for him...Why even bother...just let him go...I see there's no justice in that country.
I stopped reading after that...guess there's no such thing as life in prison there. Truely a place where you can get away with murder.
There is life in prison, after 21 years, go in front of a court, get 5 years added, rinse and repeat every 5 years.
This is fitting since he sounds like every Islamic extremist, abortion doctor murder and hate crime advocate ever.
This isn't new....he's just another in a long line of violent right wing ideologues.
Give this animal 76 days of the Electric Chair at about 85 % of full strength then crank er up to 200% on day 77.
It was self defense, just like Zimmerman.
Oh that's right...it's ok then...good news.
don't give this guy a platform. just let the shrinks study him, lock him away, and issue a report.
Can't they just do away with this humanoid garbage? Why confront the families and friends of the victims with this horrible story all over again?
The more liberal a country is, the more nut cases that culture produces. Look at all the school "rampages" it's a fooking epidemic. Guns don't kill poeple, people kill people. Australia banned all firearms, yippie! the liberals won. Yeah great, now when your robbed some disgusting piece of shiiittt is going to town on you with a screwdriver or a big fooking knife. You ever notice the fooking piece of shiiitt liberals never live next to the people they make you live next too.
Australia has a VERY low crime rate. That wasn't the best example you could find. In fact, most liberal countries have very low crime rates.
Even in America most places that are liberal have fairly low crime rates against innocent people (I'll admit that criminal on criminal violence is higher). But even then, adding more guns isn't a reasonable solution.
By the way, I'd rather take my chances against a screwdriver than crazed lunatic armed with several guns.
Hmmm. Rightwing nutjob goes on a rampage in liberal Norway and it's all the liberals' fault. Must be some more of that conservative "personal responsibility" we've heard so much about.
This guy reminds me of Timothy Mcvie. Totally serious about his work.