Prosecutors want Breivik ruled insane

2012-06-21 19:51

Mass killer Anders Behring Breivik stands in the courtroom in Oslo, Norway. (Hakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB Scanpix/ AP)

Oslo - Prosecutors asked a Norwegian court on Thursday to declare far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik insane and commit him to a mental institution, in line with their original indictment.

Breivik, who admits to killing 77 people in twin attacks last year, most of them teenagers at a Labour Party summer camp, says he should be declared sane, but acquitted on grounds that he was defending the Norwegian people by fighting the supporters of Muslim immigration.

Court-appointed psychiatrists have come to opposing conclusions. One team declared Breivik a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic, while a second concluded that he most likely suffered from a narcissistic personality disorder but was not psychotic, and could therefore be held criminally responsible.

The two professional and three lay judges will make the final ruling on Breivik's sanity and deliver their verdict by 24 August, the court said. He has said that if he is found to have been insane, he will appeal.

A survey for the public broadcaster NRK indicated that three out of four Norwegians consider Breivik sane enough for a jail sentence.

If the court agrees with the prosecution's request, Breivik could be held indefinitely, receiving treatment in a secure ward set up in a high-security prison, and coming up for review every three years.

- Reuters