Anders Behring Breivik pleaded not guilty for his massacre of 77 people in Norway, making a defiant far-right salute as his trial began Monday before being confronted by dramatic recordings of the slaughter. Prosecutors told the courtroom in Oslo that Breivik was responsible for the bloodiest chapter of modern Norwegian history as they read a roll call of his victims, showed footage of his bombing of government buildings, and played an emergency call from a young woman dodging bullets on the Utoeya island.
But while Breivik showed no emotion at the evidence of his killings, his eyes welled up as the court viewed a 12-minute anti-Islam film summarising his manifesto which he posted online the day of the carnage.
“I acknowledge the acts, but not criminal guilt, and I claim legitimate defence,” the 33-year-old, who is accused of “acts of terror,” told the court.
Breivik, dressed in a dark suit and gold-coloured tie, told the judges he did not “recognise the Norwegian court.”
Just moments earlier, he had touched his chest and extended his clenched right fist in front of him as his handcuffs were removed on his entry into the courtroom.
In the 1,500-page manifesto he posted online shortly before the July 22 attacks, Breivik described the gesture as “the clenched fist salute” of the Knights Templar organisation, of which he claims to be a member but which the prosecution argued does not exist.
The defendant remained stoney-faced for almost an hour as prosecutors read aloud a long list of names of the dead and injured and recalled chilling details of his massacre.
But he then lost his composure when his self-made movie was screened.
