"Norway prosecutors finish massacre case" June 22, 2012
OSLO — If Norwegian prosecutors get their way, no one will be held criminally responsible for the deaths of 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage that roiled the peaceful nation.
Even though self-styled anti-Muslim militant Anders Behring Breivik insists he is sane and that he carried out the July 22 attacks for political reasons, prosecutors said in closing arguments Thursday that doubts about his mental state mean he should be sent to a psychiatric institution instead of prison.
Ultimately, it’s up to the Oslo district court to decide whether Breivik is criminally insane when it presents its ruling, expected a month after the trial ends Friday.
Either way, the 33-year-old Norwegian will probably be locked up for most, if not all, of his life. But the outcome will also influence whether Norway’s worst peacetime massacre goes down in history as right-wing terrorism or as the work of a bloodthirsty madman.
‘‘I still think Breivik is clearly sane and that his rhetoric, attitudes, and behavior don’t differ notably from other terrorists,’’ said Usman Rana, a Norwegian-born Muslim of Pakistani origin who writes a newspaper column.
Rana said he doubted the psychiatric dimension would have been so prominent if the perpetrator had been an Islamist extremist.
The image of global terrorism was jolted when the blond, blue-eyed gunman surrendered to police after slaughtering 69 people at the governing Labor Party’s summer youth camp....
No mention that it was a pro-Palestinian camp. Can't have them being the group under threat and assault. Of course, had the camp been Jewish kids I'm sure that would have merited a mention from my AmeriKan media.
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I wrote as notes next to the black Xs that mark the rest of the article to refer back to my Norway scroll because the rest is crap.
"Norway massacre trial draws to close" New York Times, June 23, 2012
OSLO — The panel of judges said they would deliver their verdict on Aug. 24.
Members of the defense team, in tears themselves as parents spoke about their slain children, evoked Breivik’s human rights in their conclusion that he should be held accountable for his crimes. Breivik has admitted to the killings but said they were committed in self-defense to combat what he has called the ‘‘Islamic colonization’’ of Europe....
Breivik, [who] gunned down 69 people, mostly teenage members of the Labor Party youth wing, appeared claiming that his victims, the youngest just 14, were legitimate targets — ‘‘cultural Marxists.’’
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In an hourlong, rambling warning about the evils of Norwegian multiculturalism, by way of ‘‘Sex and the City’’ and Tibet, Breivik drew snickers from the spectators....
If deemed mentally competent, Breivik would probably be given Norway’s maximum prison term of 21 years. A sentence can be extended beyond that if a prisoner is considered a menace to society. If declared insane, he would be committed to a mental institution for as long as he is considered sick and dangerous to others.
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