Norway court declares Breivik sane in mass murder trial

  • 12 years ago
Self-confessed mass murderer Anders Behring Brevik salutes as he arrives in court to hear the verdict in his trial.

As Breivik wanted, the court handedt him a 21-year maximum jail term, dismissing the prosecution's request for an insanity ruling, which would have kept him under lock and key indefinitely in a medical facility.

In the worst attack in the Nordic nation since World War II, Breivik blew up Oslo government headquarters with a fertiliser bomb, killing eight, before gunning down 69 others at the ruling Labor Party's summer youth camp last year.

Breivik had rejected prosecutors' arguments that he was insane, claiming that the violence was a lucid political statement rather than an act of lunacy.

Officials can prevent Breivik's release indefinitely and are expected to do so if the anti-Muslim right-winger still poses a threat.

Criminal guilt was never an issue as Breivik acknowledged and described in horrific detail his murders in the ten-week trial.

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