The defense attorney for confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik said his client is “disappointed” with the state indictment handed down on Wednesday that formally charges Breivik with the attacks and murders carried out on July 22. Attorney Geir Lippestad told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that Breivik would rather be sentenced to jail than committed to a psychiatric institution.
“Anders Behring Breivik is very disappointed that he can be committed to psychiatric care,” Lippestad told NRK. “He wants to be sentenced to jail, because he believes he is sane. He maintains that he carried out these illegal acts after a rational evaluation.”
Breivik has never shown any sign of regret after killing 77 persons, injuring or wounding 158 and causing massive destruction in Oslo and on the island of Utøya last summer. He has consistently said that he attacked Norway’s government headquarters and the Norwegian Labour Party’s annual youth summer camp because he held them responsible for allowing Norway to become a multi-cultural society. Breivik has been described as a right-wing extremist who especially wants to keep Muslims out of Norway.
Lippestad told NRK, after reading Wednesday’s historic indictment, that he was also surprised that prosecutors had chosen to indict Breivik under a relatively new terror law that hasn’t been used before. Lippestad said he was surprised because Breivik allegedly acted alone in the attacks, not with others who could have been seen as a terrorist organization.
“I had expected that he would be indicted for premeditated murder, not terror,” Lippestad said.
He added, though, that Breivik himself was neither surprised nor disappointed for having been indicted under the terror section of the legal code. “That was pretty much as he expected,” Lippestad said.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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