Prosecutors: Send mass killer to asylum
Source: Agencies |
June 22, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PROSECUTORS yesterday asked a court to send confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik to a mental institution instead of prison for his massacre of 77 people in a gun and shooting rampage.
If the court comes to the same conclusion when it issues its ruling, expected next month, it would mean that Breivik would avoid criminal responsibility for Norway's worst peacetime massacre.
The attacks at Norway's government headquarters and a youth summer camp would then not be considered acts of political terrorism, but the work of a blood-thirsty madman.
"We request that he is transferred to compulsory psychiatric care," prosecutor Svein Holden told the court in closing arguments.
Though there was conclusive evidence that Breivik was psychotic during the July 22 attacks, there were enough doubts about his sanity that he cannot be sentenced to prison under Norwegian law, Holden said. The defense is likely to refute the insanity finding today, the last day of the 10-week trial. Breivik, who styles himself as an anti-Muslim militant, claims he is sane and that his attacks were motivated by his political views.
The Norwegian, 33, flashed a clenched-fist salute with his right arm before he was led away.
If the court comes to the same conclusion when it issues its ruling, expected next month, it would mean that Breivik would avoid criminal responsibility for Norway's worst peacetime massacre.
The attacks at Norway's government headquarters and a youth summer camp would then not be considered acts of political terrorism, but the work of a blood-thirsty madman.
"We request that he is transferred to compulsory psychiatric care," prosecutor Svein Holden told the court in closing arguments.
Though there was conclusive evidence that Breivik was psychotic during the July 22 attacks, there were enough doubts about his sanity that he cannot be sentenced to prison under Norwegian law, Holden said. The defense is likely to refute the insanity finding today, the last day of the 10-week trial. Breivik, who styles himself as an anti-Muslim militant, claims he is sane and that his attacks were motivated by his political views.
The Norwegian, 33, flashed a clenched-fist salute with his right arm before he was led away.
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