Anders Behring Breivik, in this file photo, gestures as he arrives at the courtroom, in Oslo, Norway in mid-April this year. AP
OSLO, Norway—Norway’s mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was found sane and sentenced to 21 years in prison on Friday for a bloodbath that left 77 people dead and traumatized the normally tranquil nation.
An Oslo court’s unanimous verdict finding Breivik responsible for “acts of terror” was in line with what the far-right extremist himself wanted, bringing to an end a spectacular 10-week trial for his devastating attacks.
The verdict denied prosecutors the insanity ruling they hoped would show that Breivik’s massacre of 77 people was the work of a madman, not part of an anti-Muslim crusade.
Breivik smiled when Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen read the ruling, declaring him sane enough to be held criminally responsible and sentencing him to “preventive detention,” which means it is unlikely he will ever be released.
The sentence brings a form of closure to Norway, which was shaken to its core by the bomb and gun attacks on July 22, 2011. Breivik’s lawyers had said that he would not appeal any ruling that did not
declare him insane.
Life in prison
Prosecutors had argued Breivik was crazy as he plotted his attacks to draw attention to a rambling “manifesto” that blamed Muslim immigration for the disintegration of European society.
Breivik argued that authorities were trying to cast him as sick to cast doubt on his political views, and said that being sent to an insane asylum would be the worst thing that could happen to him.
The five-judge panel convicted Breivik of terrorism and premeditated murder and ordered him imprisoned for a period of between 10 and 21 years, the maximum allowed under Norwegian law.
Such sentences can be extended as long as an inmate is considered too dangerous to be released. Legal experts say Breivik will almost certainly spend the rest of his life in prison.
Some who lost loved ones in the attacks welcomed the ruling.
Time for peace and quiet
“Now we won’t hear about him for quite a while. Now we can have peace and quiet,” said Per Balch Soerensen, whose daughter was shot and killed by Breivik. “He doesn’t mean anything to me. He is just air.”
Wearing a dark suit and sporting a thin beard, Breivik smirked as he walked into the courtroom to hear his sentence, and raised a clenched-fist salute.
“The ruling is unanimous,” Judge Arntzen told the court. “He is sentenced to prison for 21 years, with a minimum of 10 years.”
Survivors of the massacre took to Twitter immediately to comment on the sentencing, with Emma Martinovic tweeting: “YEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!”
Another Utoya survivor, Ingrid Nymoen, tweeted: “This crap is finally over. Life can start now.”
Youngest was 14
Breivik confessed to the attacks, describing in gruesome detail how he detonated a car bomb at the government headquarters in Oslo and then opened fire at the annual summer camp of the governing Labor Party’s youth wing.
Eight people were killed and more than 200 injured by the explosion. Sixty-nine people, most of them teenagers, were killed in the shooting spree on Utoya island. The youngest victim was 14.
Breivik has previously said he would not appeal a prison sentence, as he wanted to be found sane so his Islamophobic and antimulticultural ideology would not be considered the rantings of a lunatic.
The impact of Breivik’s violence has been huge. It has forced Norway to accept that terror doesn’t come only in the guise of foreign fundamentalists, but can come from one of their own.
The son of a Norwegian diplomat and a nurse who divorced when he was a child, Breivik had been a law-abiding citizen until the attacks, except for a brief spell of spray-painting graffiti during his youth.
Worst massacre
Norway’s justice minister and police chief both resigned in the aftermath of the massacre.
Norway’s penal code does not have the death penalty or life in prison, and the maximum prison term for Breivik’s charges is 21 years. Inmates who after that are still considered a threat to society can be held indefinitely.
The 33-year-old loner had confessed to the attacks, seeing himself as a Nordic warrior against Europe’s “Muslim invasion” and all those who promote multiculturalism.
Breivik was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and declared criminally insane after his arrest. However, a public outcry led to a second assessment which found him legally sane.
In testimony during the trial, Breivik laid out in chilling detail what motivated him to meticulously plan for years and then execute Norway’s worst massacre since World War II.
Meditation technique
Arntzen recounted Breivik’s childhood, his later failed business ventures, including selling fake diplomas. From 2006 to 2008 he committed himself to the real-time online role-playing game “World of Warcraft,’’ for up to 16 hours a day, she said, and he later continued playing other games for an average six and a half hours a day.
The court also heard about the lengths Breivik went to, to plot his attacks. Judge Arne Lyng said Breivik had bought two rifles, a pistol and a shotgun as well as ammunition in purchases from 14 retailers in four countries.
To make his bomb from chemical fertilizer, diesel and aluminium, he made 43 purchases from suppliers in five countries, said Lyng. To train himself, Breivik took several courses of steroids, worked out at a fitness center and went on hikes with a backpack full of rocks.
He also practiced a meditation technique, “to de-emotionalize himself,” and before the attacks played a total of 130 hours of shooting video game “Call of Duty,” Lyng said.
