Anders Breivik, July 25, 2011. Photo credit: Globovision
Anders Behring Breivik, the 33-year-old man who carried out bomb and gun attacks in Norway last year which left 77 people dead, has pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial in Oslo. The trial, at which Breivik is expected to show little remorse and attempt to justify his horrific actions by saying they are were a wake-up call to the dangers of multiculturalism, is set to run for 10 weeks.
On day one, Breivik told the court he “acknowledged” the acts committed but said he did not accept criminal responsibility. Breivik gave the court a closed-fist far-right style salute and told the lead judge, Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen: “I do not recognize the Norwegian courts. You have received your mandate from political parties which support multiculturalism.” At the end of the indictment, he told the court: “I acknowledge the acts, but not criminal guilt – I claim I was doing it in self-defence.”
Breivik displayed little emotion in court although did shed a tear when a 12-minute-long propaganda film about the evils of “multiculturalism” and “Islamic demographic warfare,” which he had posted online on the day of the attacks, was shown. At other moments – included when his World of Warcraft avatar was shown to the court – he smirked.
Breivik trial is an advertisement for civilised, unvengeful justice. Writing at The Times (£), Libby Purves insisted that Norway “is right to give Breivik his moment. The gunman will air his twisted views at his trial. Yet he is now an advertisement for civilised, unvengeful justice.” Purves praised Norway’s “careful, correct , stoical treatment of its terrible trauma” and urged observers to focus not on Breivik’s “self-glorifying justifications” but on “the way Breivik is being treated, and be sure that the world sees it and can decide which is better: random cruelty or careful justice.” Purves celebrated that the “double temptation — to shoot him dead on the spot or declare him mad and therefore guiltless — has been resisted,” and insisted that Breivik will prove himself to be “just a stupid, self-absorbed, willingly deluded bigot: a geekish anorak turned violent. Alone, he stepped deliberately outside society, decency and solidarity. Yet in return society holds and examines him, like a deformed and feeble specimen, shakes its head sadly, and with compassionate reluctance locks him up so he can do no more damage. And still hopes (however vainly) that he will get over himself and turn to remorse and reparation. It is so civilised, so admirable, so unvengeful that it brings tears to the eyes. It implies that the default setting of Western civilization is not hatred or fear, but hope.”
Dagbladet, one of Norway’s major newspapers, has set up a version of its website with a button that removes any mention of the trial.
Trial is right and necessary. Writing at The Daily Beast, Norwegian writer Asne Seierstad lamented that the trial gives Breivik exactly what he craves – attention: “The trial has already given the perpetrator all he dreamed of. Everything seems to be ticking nicely along according to his plan: a stage, a pulpit, a spellbound, notebook-clutching, pencil-wielding audience.” Seierstad insisted that his mass murder “was directly motivated by a wish to gain a pulpit to promote his ideology. The dilemma is obvious. How easily has he not been handed his megaphone, all in the name of freedom of speech and rule of law? Do we increase his importance in this way, subsidizing him, even, to the tune of $2 million a week? Are we puppets on a string, or are we doing what’s right and necessary?” Seierstad concluded the latter: “I have always had the opinion that all societies need the gaze from outside to move on, to develop. It can offer perspectives to counter myopia … We need his gaze. On Breivik. On us.”
Insane or not? The Independent reported on the ongoing disagreement between Norwegian psychiatrists about Breivik’s mental state. An initial report declared Breivik to be paranoid schizophrenic. But, according to newspapers in Norway, the new report – still confidential – concludes that Breivik has a narcissistic and antisocial personality disorder – a diagnosis that has certain similarities with other psychopaths. It concludes, however, that he is mentally fit enough to face trial. The first report infuriated Breivik who wrote to newspapers, listing 200 points that explained why the insane diagnosis was wrong. “I must honestly admit that this is the worst thing that could have happened to me. It is the ultimate humiliation. Sending a political activist to a mental hospital is more sadistic and crueller than killing him. It’s a fate worse than death.”
