An Oslo court Monday ruled that the gunman who killed 77 people in July’s twin attacks in Norway will be held in custody till his trial opens on April 16 and rejected his plea for immediate release.
Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old right-wing extremist, told the court at his detention hearing that he had committed the massacre to “defend the ethnic Norwegian population.”
“I do not accept imprisonment. I demand to be immediately released,” he told the court after entering the courtroom and making a gesture which his lawyer Geir Lippestad described as a “right-wing salute”. Behring Breivik, who has claimed to be on a crusade against multi-culturalism and the “Muslim invasion” of Europe, set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo on July 22, killing eight people.
He then went to Utoeya island, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Oslo, and, dressed as a police officer, spent more than an hour methodically shooting and killing another 69 people, mainly teens, attending a summer camp hosted by the ruling Labour Party’s youth wing.
