Breivik, who has admitted detonating a
fertilizer bomb outside government headquarters, killing eight, before gunning
down 69 at the ruling party’s summer youth camp, faces the possibility of
indefinite extensions to his sentence.
Many survivors and victims’ families wanted a
sane verdict, saying the opposite would diminish his responsibility for the
attacks.
Breivik said he targeted the ruling
centre-left Labour Party for its support of Muslim immigration. He dismissed
being called a child murderer, arguing that his victims, some as young as 14,
were brainwashed activists whose support for multiculturalism threatened to
adulterate pure Norwegian blood. His trial began on 16 April 2012, and closing
arguments were held on 22 June, 2012.
Reports
Breivik himself had argued for the sane
verdict as he wanted the attack to be seen as a political statement. Two teams
of court-appointed psychiatrists examined Breivik prior to his trial; in the
first report Breivik was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and a second
evaluation was commissioned following widespread criticism of the first report.
The second psychiatric evaluation was published one week before the trial,
concluding that Breivik was not psychotic during the attacks nor during the
evaluation, he was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder.
First
report
The psychiatrists diagnosed him with paranoid
schizophrenia, concluding that he had developed the disorder over time and was
psychotic both when he carried out the attacks and during the observation. He
was also diagnosed with abuse of non-dependence-producing substances antecedent
of 22 July 2012. The psychiatrists consequently found Breivik to be criminally
insane.
