Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik says he will not appeal a conviction if the court in Oslo finds him both guilty and sane. The Norwegian right-wing extremist, who admits killing 77 people in the July 22 dual terror attacks last year, seeks to prove that he is sane and therefore his actions were driven by rational, ideological motives.
“There is absolutely no reason to appeal if I am declared criminally accountable,” Breivik told the court on Thursday (May 24).
The 33-year-old, who says he carried out the attacks to save Norway from multiculturalism, could face up to 21 years in prison if found guilty. Two court-appointed psychiatric reports have failed to agree on the killer’s mental state, however, meaning he could be confined to psychiatric care.
Last week, the court continued to hear the accounts of those wounded on Utøya Island. Breivik indiscriminately gunned down 69 people attending a youth camp for the country’s ruling Labour party there shortly after he killed eight in a bomb attack in Oslo.
Iraqi-born Mohamad Hadi Hamed, 21, told the court how he is now confined to a wheelchair, having had an arm and a leg amputated after he was shot by Breivik. “For a minute I thought I was in Iraq because such a thing was impossible in Norway,” he said.
Einar Bardal, 17, also relayed how he realised he had been shot in the head after hearing a bang followed by a loud beeping noise.”I’ve been shot, tell mum I love her,” he said he told his friends at the time.
Breivik, who has shown little emotion so far through the trial, said Thursday’s testimonies had been the hardest to hear so far. “It is my goal to not show emotion. I expend a lot energy on it,” he said.
“Today I feel almost mentally damaged after having heard these testimonies.”