Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in attacks in Norway last year, will seek to convince the court on Wednesday that he is sane and should be sent to prison rather than psychiatric care.
A first psychiatric evaluation found the 33-year-old right-wing extremist to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, but a second opinion concluded he was of sound mind.
Breivik wants to be found sane and accountable for his actions, so that his anti-Islam ideology would be taken seriously and not considered the ravings of a lunatic.
He has said that being sentenced to closed psychiatric care would be “worse than death”, and is expected to challenge the first psychiatric examination which he claims contains “more than 200 lies.”
“I’m not a psychiatric case and I’m criminally sane” and accountable for the July 22 twin attacks, he told the Oslo district court on Friday.
Breivik was to testify about his mental health Wednesday afternoon, following testimonies in the morning from people injured by the car bomb he parked at the foot of the 17-floor Oslo government tower.
The 950-kilo (430-pound) bomb, made from fertiliser, diesel and aluminium, killed eight people and injured nine others seriously.
The anti-immigration Islamophobe has said the bombing, and the later shooting of 69 people on Utoeya island, were “cruel but necessary” to stop the ruling Labour Party’s “multicultural experiment” and the “Muslim invasion” of Norway and Europe.
Breivik has been charged with “acts of terror” and faces either 21 years in prison — a sentence that could be extended indefinitely if he is still considered a threat to society — or closed psychiatric care, possibly for life.
It will ultimately be up to the Oslo court judges to determine whether he is sane when they hand down their verdict in July.
