Breivik ends his trial with rambling speech

Anders Breivik has admitted killing 77.
Anders Breivik has admitted killing 77.
By Karl Ritter, Associated Press
Posted: June 23, 2012

OSLO, Norway - With a rambling monologue depicting Norway's worst peacetime massacre as a necessary evil, confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik got the last word as his 10-week trial ended Friday amid conflicting claims about his sanity.

Relatives of his 77 victims said they hope it's the last they hear of him.

"For me this is not about whether he's mentally competent or not," said Unni Espeland, whose daughter, Andrine, 16, was killed in Breivik's shooting attack. "For me this is about him never being let out again."

Since the self-styled anti-Muslim fanatic admitted to the twin attacks on July 22 - a car bomb in downtown Oslo, followed by the shooting at the governing Labor Party's youth camp - his sanity was the key issue to be resolved in the trial.

Breivik, 33, rejected prosecutors' assertion that he is insane. He demanded to be set free, saying his actions "were preventive attacks to defend the indigenous Norwegian people," and vowed he would be exonerated by history.

Defense lawyer Geir Lippestad formally entered a plea for acquittal, but it was made out of principle, without any realistic chance of success.

When Breivik addressed the court, he lashed out at everything he finds wrong with the world, from the Labor Party's immigration policies, to nonethnic Norwegians representing the country in the Eurovision Song Contest and the sexually liberated lifestyle of the characters Carrie and Samantha on Sex and the City.

"These are the ideals that are presented to our sisters and daughters today," he said. "They should be censored and removed from our society."

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.

Prosecutors had called Thursday for an insanity ruling, saying there was enough doubt about Breivik's mental state to preclude a prison sentence. The five-judge panel will announce its ruling on Aug. 24, Chief Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen said.

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