Norwegian prosecutors trying confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik say they want him to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment instead of prison.
But if the court decides that Breivik is guilty, prosecutors asked for the maximum penalty of 21 years in prison, a sentence that can be extended as long as Breivik is considered a danger to society.
Breivik has undergone two psychiatric evaluations, one ruling him mentally incompetent and the other ruling him sane.
Prosecutor Svein Holden told the court Thursday that his team believes it is worse to send a psychotic person to detention than it is to send a non-psychotic person to mandatory mental care.
Breivik admits to killing 77 people last July during attacks on a government building in Oslo and a political youth camp. He said he was acting to fight multiculturalism in Norway and what he sees as a Muslim invasion of Europe.
Breivik has told the court that the report declaring him insane was based on “fabrications” by court-appointed psychiatrists. He has previously said an insanity ruling would be “worse than death.”
The defense is scheduled to make closing arguments Friday.
1.SOUNDBITE (Norwegian) Inga Bejer Engh, prosecutor: ++INCLUDES CUTAWAY OF BREIVIK++
“Why did this happen? How could one man in such a short time cause such immense damage? And how did this citizen among us turn into this killing machine that we have seen? Is he ill or is he not ill?”
2.SOUNDBITE (Norwegian) Inga Bejer Engh, prosecutor:
“The act committed on the 22nd of July was so horrendous that it goes far beyond our comprehension and I must constantly remind myself that this really happened.”
3.SOUNDBITE (Norwegian) Inga Bejer Engh, prosecutor: ++INCLUDES CUTAWAY OF BREIVIK++
“The most incomprehensible thing is the defendant's description of the acts committed at Utoya. He is totally unaffected by the acts he committed there. He describes how these young people begged for their lives and he describes how he carefully made sure they were dead by going up close to them and shooting them in the head to make sure he had completed the operation.”
4.SOUNDBITE (English) Sjak R. Haaheim, representative of the volunteers working during the rescue operation following the massacre last year:
“Obviously it's interesting to see how the prosecution is regarding and dealing with the different evidence in this case and also what sort of conclusion they will reach, whether or not they will argue that he is insane and should be sentenced to a psychiatric ward or if he is sane and can be punished and be held responsible for his actions.”
