THE terror trial against an anti-Muslim fanatic who confessed to killing
77 people in Norway is set to start amid worries that he will use the
proceedings to showcase his radical views.
After
opening statements, Anders Behring Breivik is set to testify for five days,
explaining why he set off a bomb in downtown Oslo, killing eight, and then shot
to death 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoya
island, outside the Norwegian capital.
Since
Breivik has confessed to the July 22 attacks - claiming they were necessary to
protect Norway from being taken over by Muslims - the key issue that remains
unresolved is his mental health.
The
33-year-old Norwegian was found insane in one examination that recommended
committing him to compulsory psychiatric care, while a second assessment found
him mentally competent to be sent to prison. It's up to the judges in Oslo's
district court to decide which diagnosis they find most believable.
If deemed
mentally competent, he would face a maximum prison sentence of 21 years or an
alternate custody arrangement under which the sentence is prolonged for as long
as an inmate is deemed a danger to society.
Those who
survived the shooting massacre are bracing for the horror to return during the
trial.
"I do
not know how I will react, I do not think you can prepare for it," said
Stine Renate Haaheim, a 27-year-old Labour Party MP who survived the Utoya
massacre by swimming away from the island.
Ms Haaheim
said she is concerned that Breivik will use the intense media focus during the
trial to draw attention to his extremist views.
Although she
is curious about what snapped inside Breivik to turn him into a mass killer,
she said, "I don't think it will give any meaning to what has
happened."
Police will
seal off streets around the court building, where journalists, survivors and
relatives of victims can watch the proceedings in a 200-seat courtroom built
specifically for the trial.
Thick glass
partitions have been put up to separate victims and their families from the
defendant.
Norway's NRK
television will broadcast parts of the trial, but is not allowed to show
Breivik's testimony.
In a
manifesto he published online before the attacks, Breivik wrote that
"patriotic resistance fighters" should use trials "as a platform
to further our cause".
Breivik
surrendered to police 80 minutes after he arrived on Utoya.
The police
response was slowed by a series of mishaps, including the lack of an operating
police helicopter and the breakdown of an overloaded boat carrying a commando
team to Utoya.
Breivik
claims he targeted the government headquarters in Oslo and the Labour Party
youth camp to strike against the left-leaning political forces he blames for
allowing immigration in Norway.
Breivik told
investigators he is a resistance fighter in a far-right militant group modelled
after the Knights Templar medieval crusaders, but police have found no trace of
the organisation and say he acted alone.
Anxious to
prove he is not insane, Breivik has called right-wing extremists and radical
Islamist to testify during the trial, to show that there are others who share
his view of clashing civilisations.
His defence
lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said Breivik's only regret is that the death toll
wasn't higher.
"It is
difficult to understand, but I am telling you this to prepare people for his
testimony," Mr Lippestad said