Norway mourned on Sunday 93 people killed in a shooting spree and car bombing by a Norwegian who saw his attacks as “atrocious, but necessary” to defeat liberal immigration policies and the spread of Islam.
In his first comment via a lawyer since his arrest, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, said he wanted to explain himself at a court hearing on Monday about extending his custody, Reuters reported. “He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary,” Geir Lippestad said. The lawyer said Breivik had admitted to Friday’s shootings at a Labour Party youth camp and the bombing that killed seven people in Oslo’s government district a few hours earlier.
However, “he feels that what he has done does not deserve punishment,” Lippestad told NRK public television. “What he has said is that he wants a change in society and in his understanding, in his head, there must be a revolution,” he added. Oslo’s acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim confirmed to reporters that Breivik would be able to speak to the court. It was not clear whether the hearing would be closed or in public.
“He has admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he’s not admitting criminal guilt,” Sponheim said, adding that Breivik had said he acted alone. Police were checking this because some witness statements from the island spoke of more than one gunman, Sponheim said. King Harald and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg were among mourners at a service in Oslo cathedral, where the premier spoke emotionally about the victims, some of whom he knew.
“This represents a national tragedy,” he declared. Tearful people placed flowers and candles outside the cathedral. Soldiers with guns and wearing bullet-proof vests blocked streets leading to the government district. A person wounded in the shooting died in hospital, raising the death toll to 93, Norway’s NRK television said. Police say some people remain missing. Ninety-seven people were wounded.
At more than 1,500 pages long and nearly a decade in the making, the manifesto detailing Breivik’s murderous “crusade” gave a chilling picture of a self-confessed “monster,” AFP reported. It was designed to bring about the revolution he said was needed to end a centuries-long Muslim colonisation of Europe.
