Norway Massacre: Confessed Killer Anders Breivik Insane, Doctors Say
Psychiatrists' report could derail jail time for Anders Breivik.
Nov. 29, 2011 — -- Anders Breivik, the man who confessed to ruthlessly killing more than 70 people in a bombing and shooting spree in Norway, has been declared mentally insane by court-appointed doctors, according to media reports.
A panel of psychiatrists said today that Breivik suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was insane both during the massacre and during the 13 interviews two psychiatrists had with him, The Associated Press reported. The panel recommended Breivik be held at a psychiatric ward rather than prison.
Though he has pleaded not guilty to charges against him, Breivik freely admitted that he attacked the country's liberal party for their "treason" and even reenacted the deadly shooting for investigators in August.
In their 243-page report, the psychiatrists said Breivik "finds himself in his own delusional universe, where all his thoughts and acts are governed by these delusions," prosecutor Svein Holden reportedly said. "They conclude that Anders Behring Breivik, during a long period of time, has developed the mental disorder of paranoid schizophrenia, which has changed him and made him into the person he is today."
In the aftermath of the bloody massacre, investigators discovered Breivik had posted a 1,500-page manifesto online in which he said he was just one operative in the beginning of a violent Christian conservative revolution in Europe led by members of the new Knights Templar. Breivik had apparently worked clandestinely for months, meticulously planning his deadly attack from an isolated farmhouse in Norway.
READ: Norway Terror Suspect Claims More Active 'Cells', Police Doubtful
Breivik had planned on a 60-plus year struggle against mutliculturalism until the Knights would take control over Europe, the manifesto said. One of the order's primary weapons, Breivik wrote, is the use of one-man terror cells.
"Chop-chop <3 For those of you who does [sic] not want to wait this long, should immediately ordinate yourself as a Justiciar Knight for the KT [Knights Templar]," he writes. "Any self-appointed Justiciar Knight has been given the authority by [Knights Templar]... to act as a judge, jury and executioner until the free, indigenous peoples of Europe are no longer threatened by cultural genocide."
After his arrest, Breivik's lawyer said the suspected mass murderer made two lists of demands from jail -- one for practical jailhouse items like cigarettes and clothes, and another with far more bizarre requests including the complete overthrow of the Norwegian government and promise of key role in the future of the country.
He also wanted the mental evaluation to be conducted by Japanese specialists because they "understand the idea of values of honor," Breivik said, according to attorney Geir Lippestad.
Such demands, Lippestad said in August, were "unrealistic -- far, far from the real world and shows he doesn't know how society works."
The psychiatrists' report will be further reviewed by the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine, the AP reported. Breivik was scheduled to stand trial for his crimes in April, but if the doctors' recommendation is upheld, the courts will only rule on his criminal insanity and length of commitment to a psychiatric institution, Reuters said in a report.
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