Norway jails ‘sane’ Anders Behring Breivik for 21 years

A Norwegian court declared confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik as sane and sentenced him to at least 21 years in prison.

Zeenews Bureau

Oslo: Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was on Friday sentenced to 21 years in prison for killing 77 people in bomb and shooting attacks last year. The court also found him to be sane, dismissing the prosecution`s request for an insane verdict, reported Xinhua. 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. However, inmates who are considered a threat to society can be held indefinitely. District Court Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen first read out the conclusion of the verdict. After being brought into the main courtroom, Breivik smiled and chatted with his lawyers and people behind him before the verdict reading started at 10 am. Norwegian prosecutors had demanded that Breivik be ruled as insane when the trial for Norway`s worst peace time attacks started April 16. Breivik`s defence lawyer Geir Lippestad, who met Breivik on Thursday for the last time before Friday`s verdict, said that Breivik would accept prison terms but would appeal an insanity ruling. Breivik, a 33-year-old Norwegian on a mission to expel Muslims from Europe, set off a car bomb that killed eight people outside government headquarters in Oslo on July 22, 2011 and then killed 69 others in a shooting rampage on Utoeya island, where young members of the governing Labor Party had gathered for their annual summer camp. Breivik confessed to the attacks during the trial, 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. During the trial, Breivik said that being sent to an insane asylum would be the worst thing that could happen to him and accused Norwegian authorities of trying to cast him as sick to deflate his political views. His lawyers say Breivik is already at work writing sequels to the 1,500-page manifesto he released on the Internet before the attacks. (With Agency inputs)