TO SHOUTS of “Murderer!”, a smiling Anders Behring Breivik had his day in court yesterday – but had to do without the attention he craved.
Behind closed doors for fear he would send signals to accomplices, the 32-year-old admitted carrying out last week’s twin attacks but denied criminal responsibility. He was remanded in custody for eight weeks, four in solitary confinement.
Three days after twin attacks that shocked the world – a bombing in Oslo and a mass shooting on a nearby island – Breivik appeared in court wearing a red sweater after his request to wear a military uniform was denied. With close-cropped blonde hair, he looked heavier than in his own propaganda pictures, and unshaven.
A snatched image revealed tired but triumphant eyes as he was whisked from nearby Groenland prison to the court’s underground car park. A group of teenagers broke through police lines to strike the jeep as it passed, the first show of anger in a society that, in public at least, has mixed sorrow with stoicism.
Before the courthouse, behind a cluster of at least 50 television cameras, the crowd was seething.
“He should pay for his crimes. I hope he never comes out,” said Javier (16). “We need a swift, fair trial, but not in public, that’d be just giving him what he wants,” said Sylvia (48).
Inside the modern courtyard building, over 200 journalists packed the eighth floor corridor. After several hours of waiting, a spokeswoman announced that the judge had granted applications to close the hearing. In final preparation, a bomb squad checked every cupboard and toilet near the courtroom with a frisky springer spaniel.
At 1.42pm, Breivik’s black-suited lawyer, Geir Lippestad, followed by two assistants, pushed through the press pack, saying his client wanted an “open trial to explain his actions”. But moments later the trial began without the oxygen of publicity.
In courtroom 828, with baby blue walls and oak parquet flooring, Breivik identified himself to Judge Kim Heger, a balding, bespectacled man with a worried look.
The judge read out charges under Norway’s criminal code for acts of terrorism, including destabilising vital functions of society and causing serious fear in the population. “Although the accused has acknowledged circumstances, he has pleaded not guilty,” said Judge Heger after the 40-minute hearing.
“The accused believes that he needed to carry out these acts in order to save Norway and western Europe from, among other things, cultural Marxism and a Muslim takeover.” Breivik told the court he wanted to scare off youth recruitment to the ruling Labour Party, which he accused of “treason” for advocating multiculturalism.
“But when he started reading from his manifesto, the judge stopped him,” a court official said later.
After claiming initially he had acted alone, Breivik told the courtroom he had had assistance for his plan from two other terrorist cells.
His lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said it was “impossible to assess the credibility of those claims”.
Police said yesterday they understood the gunman had bought large quantities of fertiliser, presumably used in the Oslo bomb, in Poland.
An investigator revealed yesterday that, rather than perpetrate a mass shooting, Breivik’s original plan had been to lure the 700 young people attending a summer camp on Utoeya island into the clubhouse – and then blow it up.
“But camp organisers who travelled with him on the ferry to the island became suspicious and put out the alert,” said the investigator.
As Breivik was returned to prison yesterday, his estranged father disowned him in an interview, saying he wished his son had killed himself during Friday’s attack.
Jens David Breivik, a retired diplomat, said he was “paralysed” when he first saw the news.
“I knew it wasn’t April Fools’ Day and wondered if this really could be possible,” he said, telling Expressen newspaper he had had no contact with his “difficult” son for 16 years.
In a 30-year diplomatic career ending in 1996, Breivik was posted to embassies from London to Tehran. He divorced his wife in 1980 when his son was a year old. Now living in France, he said he would never return to Norway, and said he was “deeply sorry” for the situation. “How could he stand there and kill so many innocent people? He should have taken his own life, too. That’s what he should have done.”
A childhood friend of the killer described Friday’s massacre as a “marketing tool” for his idea of a revolution against multiculturalism. “Unfortunately I don’t think he’s crazy,” said journalist Peter Svaar on national broadcaster NRK. “He’s cold, intelligent and resourceful, and is playing us all like a piano.”
On Monday afternoon, police said eight rather than seven people had been killed in the Oslo blast, but said 68 people had been killed on Utoeya, down from an early reported toll of 86. As police investigators continued to patrol waters off the island, newspapers carried pictures of eight teenagers still missing.