Picture Gallery: Norway’s Tragedy
Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people on July 22, 2011 first detonating a car bomb outside government headquarters and killing eight, then gunning down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at the ruling Labour Party’s summer camp on Utøya Island. (via Reuters.com)
Oslo, Norway
Anders Behring Breivik at the start of the third day of proceedings in the courthouse. His defiant closed-fist salute has been the subject of speculation (via guardian.co.uk)
Norway: Anders Behring Breivik charged with terrorism and murder - video
Norwegian prosecutors indict Anders Behring Breivik on terror and murder charges for killing 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage on 22 July 2011. The confessed mass killer is unlikely to go to prison as prosecutors consider the rightwing extremist to be psychotic, and seek a sentence of involuntary commitment to psychiatric care instead of imprisonment (via The Guardian)
Oslo, Norway
Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people, arrives at a court hearing. Breivik admitted to detonating a bomb at a government building in Oslo that killed eight people and gunning down 69 more at an island summer camp for Labour Party youths in July. The court will decide if Breivik will be remanded in custody. (via Reuters.com)
The father of Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in twin attacks in July, says his son is the “worst terrorist” since World War II, in an interview released on Wednesday.
Jens Breivik, 76, a retired diplomat who lives in the south of France, told German news weekly Stern that he last had contact with his son about six years ago by phone but that he now wanted to visit him in prison.
“I want to look him in the eyes. Perhaps I am in a position to arouse feelings in him,” he told Stern in comments published in German.
“He is the worst terrorist since the Second World War. He killed 77 innocent people and isn’t even showing remorse,” he added in an interview.
Breivik, who divorced Anders’s mother when he was one year old, said they did not have much of a father-son relationship and had no common interests. But he indicated he felt a sense of guilt.
“Probably all that wouldn’t have happened if I had looked after Anders more,” he added.
Behring Breivik killed a total of 77 people on July 22nd, most of whom died when he embarked on a shooting spree on the island of Utøya, some 40 kilometres north-west of Oslo. (via The Local)
Liège attack: Belgian police find body in killer’s shed
Police in Belgium have found a woman’s body in a shed belonging to a gunman who went on the rampage in the centre of Liege on Tuesday.
The body was found with a bullet wound to the head, say Belgian officials.
Nordine Amrani launched his attack with guns and hand grenades in a busy marketplace in Liege, killing three people there and himself.
Police say a 75 year-old woman earlier identified as one of the dead is still alive in hospital.
About 125 people were wounded, five of whom are in intensive care, including the woman.
The body found at the killer’s property was that of a cleaner, reported to be 45 years old, who worked for one of Amrani’s neighbours. (via BBC News)
Norway: Anders Behring Breivik still feels no remorse
Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian far-right extremist, who killled 77 people in twin attacks in July, still no signs of remorse, his lawyer has admitted.
“He says he does not regret these actions. That is of course a message that is difficult to convey, but he is very clear on this point … He believes it was necessary,” Geir Lippestad told the TV2 News Channel.
“He thinks his actions were atrocious but necessary,” the lawyer said, reiterating phrasing used several times to describe his client’s deeds.
Now in custody at the high-security Ila prison near Oslo, Behring Breivik, 32, is scheduled to go on trial on April 16.
A psychiatric evaluation of the confessed killer concluded late last month that he suffered from “paranoid schizophrenia”.
If confirmed by a panel of experts and the Oslo court, that conclusion will most likely mean Behring Breivik cannot go to prison but instead will be sent to a closed psychiatric institution for treatment. (via Telegraph)
Grenade Attack In Crowded Belgium Square Kills At Least Two People
Reports are still coming in, but at least two people were killed and a dozen injured in central Liège, Belgium after a reported grenade attack by several unknown assailants.
Lesoir.be reports one man of about 40 tossed at least some of the grenades toward a bus shelter at Place Saint-Lambert. Witnesses reported four explosions and a series of gunshots before the assailant killed himself.
The BBC reports that it may have been several men who threw grenades, with one already dead and potentially two more on the loose.
No group has yet taken responsibility for the attack. (via Business Insider)
Sweden presents plan to combat extremism
The day before a massive right wing demonstration is set to take place in Sweden and two days before the anniversary of the Stockholm suicide bombing, the Swedish government on Friday presented their new plan to combat extremism.
”It is very important that we take this problem seriously. Every individual who ends up in violent extremism is one too many,” minster for democracy, Birgitta Ohlsson told news agency TT after a press conference on Friday.
Between 2012 and 2014 the government is aiming to spend 62 million kronor ($9.2 million) in combating extremism, concentrating on increasing the knowledge of what types of extremism tends to lead to violence.
The work on the action plan has been going on for three years and is a joint effort between security service Säpo, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet – Brå), the National Defence College (Försvarshögskolan), the National Board of Youth Affairs (Ungdomsstyrelsen), and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR).
According to Ohlsson, Taimour Abdulwahab’s attempt to blow himself up on a Stockholm street last year has showed Swedes how vulnerable the country’s open society is.
She also mentioned the tragedy in Norway caused by Anders Behring Breivik, the Gothenburg riots of 2001, and the police murders in Malexander in 1999.
“Säpo says that there are too few of these individuals for these groups to constitute a serious threat to democracy, but we must keep a watchful eye. We should neither overestimate or underestimate them,” Ohlsson said.
The three extremist environments on which the plan’s efforts will be concentrated are the white power movement, the autonomous left, and violent Islamism. (via The Local)
Norway’s PM says deadly attacks changed him
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview published on Sunday that the July killing spree by a right-wing extremist that left 77 people dead had changed him profoundly.
“The attack has become part of my identity. I value democratic values today more than before — freedom of speech, the freedom to be able to be an active politician,” he told Bild am Sonntag in comments published in German.
He said those values were attacked on July 22nd, when anti-immigration extremist Anders Behring Breivik set off a bomb at Labour government offices in Oslo and then embarked on a shooting massacre at a Labour youth summer camp on an island near the capital.
“Whenever I feel sorry for myself, I recall that my concerns are very small, they are nothing compared to those of the victims,” the Labour prime minister said.
He said he had “not the slightest need” to see Behring Breivik to discuss his motives.
“He killed people in my office, people whom I knew well. My wish is to leave it up to the Norwegian justice system,” he said.
Prosecutors on Tuesday declared the 32-year-old criminally insane when he carried out the deadly rampage after two psychiatrists who examined him concluded that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. (via The Local)
The Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow by marantzer on Flickr.
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