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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Breivik ‘like a Nazi from the ’30s’

A psychiatrist who has read a 38-page letter to Norwegian media from confessed right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik has likened Breivik’s text to the “ideologocial documents” written by Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. Portions of Breivik’s letter were published in Oslo-based newspaper VG on Wednesday. 

Anders Behring Breivik, shown here at a custody hearing in January, has written a 38-page letter in which he insists he's sane and driven by political ideology. PHOTO: NRK screen grab/Views and News

Dr Arne Thorvik compared Breivik’s “very aggressive ideology” to that of “Nazis who claimed the Jews were taking over the world.” Thorvik pointed out that according to Breivik, Islam is now in the process of taking over the world, and that most Norwegians are not acknowledging that. His attacks on July 22, he has said, were meant to protect Norway from what he sees as an Islamic threat.

Like the Nazis of 70 years ago, Breivik “is convinced that his ability to evaluate this is correct,” Thorvik told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). “He’s aggressive against people who think differently and who are different. I believe this can be compared with what the Nazis thought in the ’30s and ’40s, when they believed the Jews had a secret conspiracy plan to take over.”

As reported earlier, Breivik’s main message in the letter sent two weeks before his trial begins is that he is not insane. Breivik, who killed 77 persons in his attacks on the Norwegian government and a Labour Party summer camp last July, blasts a report by two court-appointed psychiatrists who have determined him to be insane and that he should be committed to a psychiatric institution. That, according to Breivik, would be “the ultimate humiliation.” He wants to be taken seriously, and is determined to prove that he not only is sane but on a mission to protect the world from an Islamic takeover.

‘Evil lies’
Breivik claims he has found more than 200 points in the court-appointed psychiatrists’ report that are incorrect. He claims they have fabricated portions of their report to make him appear sick. “This isn’t innocent misunderstandings, but evil lies designed in a quite sophisticated and well-thought-out manner to shape the premises that form the basis for their conclusion,” Breivik wrote.

He also claims both court-appointed psychiatrists were emotionally affected by the 77 murders he’s charged with, and simply can’t believe that a sane person could carry out such gruesome attacks. One of the two court-appointed psychiatrists, Torgeir Husby, “specified on several occasions that he thought the acts I carried out were beastly,” Breivik wrote. “I got the impression that he viewed me as an animal that must be caged up and drugged, whatever it costs.”

Breivik also wrote that he thinks Husby and his partner Synne Sørheim lacked knowledge of politically motivated violence and are politically at odds with himself. He thus questions their objectivity: “Both believe in multi-culturalistic ideology and are therefore per definition opponents of my mono-culturalistic and ethnocentric world view.” He called them “anti-nationalists” and stated that he was “completely incompatible” with them: “While I believe that multi-culturalism is an anti-Norwegian, hate ideology designed to deconstruct the Norwegian ethnic group, Norwegian culture and traditions and Norwegian Christianity, Husby and Sørheim believe our enthic group and our culture aren’t worth preserving.”

He notes that their conclusion could send “a political activist (as he claims he is)” to a mental hospital, and he calls that “more sadistic and evil than killing him. It’s a fate worse than death.”

Insanity debate
Public debate over the original court-appointed psychiatrists’ insanity declaration has been so intense in Norway, since it would preclude prison for Breivik, that the court called for a second opinion. A new report from new court-appointed psychiatrists Terje Tørrissen and Agnar Aspaas is due April 10.

If they also conlude insanity, Breivik most likely won’t be sentenced to prison and instead will be committed to a psychiatric institution.

If they believe Breivik is sane, it will be up to the court to make a final determination towards the end of his trial, which starts April 16 and will run for 10 weeks. A verdict is due no later than June 20.

Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund

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