Survivors: Massacre suspect joyful, mad
Source: Agencies |
May 17, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ANDERS Behring Breivik roared a "battle cry" and appeared both angry and joyous as he shot people one by one with a distorted face, survivors of the Norwegian far-right killer's massacre told a court yesterday.
"I heard screaming but I couldn't make out the words," said Ingvild Leren Stensrud, 17, who was shot in the leg and shoulder.
Stensrud, who survived after another victim fell on her, creating the impression that she was dead, said she initially thought Breivik was not alone.
"I thought they (the attackers) were exchanging messages but realizing he was alone, I think the scream was actually a battle cry," she testified. Breivik made sure his victims were dead by delivering a control shot to their heads one by one, she added.
Breivik killed 77 people on July 22, first detonating a car bomb outside government buildings in central Oslo which killed eight, and then shooting 69 people, most of them teenagers, at the ruling Labour Party's summer camp on Utoeya Island.
He admits the killings but denies criminal guilt, arguing the killings were necessary since his victims were "traitors" who promoted Muslim immigration and multiculturalism, thereby threatening Norwegian ethnic purity.
Stensrud said she sought refuge in the summer camp's cafe, hiding behind a piano, only to get trapped as Breivik walked from room to room in the small building, killing over a dozen people.
"I tried to get to the door behind others and when they got shot, they fell on me. One laid across my chest," she told the trial, which will continue until mid-June. "That's when I got hit in the left thigh. Many were shot lying on the floor."
"Next to me (a man) was coughing up blood," she added.
If deemed sane, Breivik faces a 21-year jail sentence which could be indefinitely extended for as long as he is considered dangerous.
One court-appointed team of psychiatrists concluded he was psychotic, but a second team came to the opposite conclusion. The five judges will take a final decision on his sanity at the trial's end.
Breivik has said he should either be executed or acquitted. If he were to be declared insane, he has said that would be "worse than death."
"I heard screaming but I couldn't make out the words," said Ingvild Leren Stensrud, 17, who was shot in the leg and shoulder.
Stensrud, who survived after another victim fell on her, creating the impression that she was dead, said she initially thought Breivik was not alone.
"I thought they (the attackers) were exchanging messages but realizing he was alone, I think the scream was actually a battle cry," she testified. Breivik made sure his victims were dead by delivering a control shot to their heads one by one, she added.
Breivik killed 77 people on July 22, first detonating a car bomb outside government buildings in central Oslo which killed eight, and then shooting 69 people, most of them teenagers, at the ruling Labour Party's summer camp on Utoeya Island.
He admits the killings but denies criminal guilt, arguing the killings were necessary since his victims were "traitors" who promoted Muslim immigration and multiculturalism, thereby threatening Norwegian ethnic purity.
Stensrud said she sought refuge in the summer camp's cafe, hiding behind a piano, only to get trapped as Breivik walked from room to room in the small building, killing over a dozen people.
"I tried to get to the door behind others and when they got shot, they fell on me. One laid across my chest," she told the trial, which will continue until mid-June. "That's when I got hit in the left thigh. Many were shot lying on the floor."
"Next to me (a man) was coughing up blood," she added.
If deemed sane, Breivik faces a 21-year jail sentence which could be indefinitely extended for as long as he is considered dangerous.
One court-appointed team of psychiatrists concluded he was psychotic, but a second team came to the opposite conclusion. The five judges will take a final decision on his sanity at the trial's end.
Breivik has said he should either be executed or acquitted. If he were to be declared insane, he has said that would be "worse than death."
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
