Norway: Mass Killer Declared Criminally Insane

Norway: Mass Killer Declared Criminally Insane

Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in Norway earlier this year, has been ruled legally insane at the time the crime was committed, raising the possibility that he will be sent to a psychiatric facility rather than to prison.

Prosecutors said results from psychiatric evaluation conducted by court-appointed experts showed that the 32-year-old Breivik was insane. “He lives in his own delusional universe and his thoughts and acts are governed by this universe,” prosecutor Svein Holden said. The court may challenge the results and order new tests, but that scenario is highly unlikely. If officially declared insane, Breivik could be held in a psychiatric institution indefinitely or until he is declared sane. Holden said Breivik lives in a make-believe world where he “sees himself as chosen to decide who shall live and who shall die, and that he is chosen to save what he calls his people.”

Breivik’s attacks on July 22 are now considered the worst attacks in Norway since World War II. Breivik is accused of bombing government buildings in Oslo before killing participants at a summer camp of the ruling Norwegian party’s youth arm on the island of Utoya.
Norway: Mass Killer Declared Criminally Insane