Norway massacre trial hinges on sanity

OSLO, Norway -- When Anders Behring Breivik goes on trial next week, both the prosecution and the defense will agree he killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting massacre that jolted the world's image of terrorism.

The only question will be whether the self-styled anti-Muslim militant was sane when he did it -- and after a new psychiatric assessment yesterday, even that may no longer be in dispute.

"Our conclusion is that he . . . [was] not psychotic at the time of the actions of terrorism and he is not psychotic now," Terje Toerrissen, a psychiatrist who examined Breivik in prison, told The Associated Press.

The twin attacks on July 22, a bomb in Oslo's government district followed by a shooting spree at the governing Labor Party's youth camp outside the capital, brutally shocked Norway and reminded the West of terror threats other than al-Qaida.

The blond, blue-eyed gunman surrendered to police on a lakeside island where the bodies of his many teenage victims lay scattered. He claimed he was the Islamic terror group's antithesis, a modern-day crusader waging a war against Islam in Europe.

Breivik confessed to the attacks but rejected criminal guilt, saying he had acted to protect Norway from being overrun by Muslims by targeting the left-leaning political establishment he claimed had betrayed the country with liberal immigration policies.

The psychiatric report presented to the Oslo district court yesterday backed up Breivik's own claim that he is sane, and contradicted an earlier assessment that declared him psychotic and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. That first diagnosis was met with widespread criticism, prompting the court to order the second review.

Breivik's defense lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said the new report means Breivik's testimony will be crucial "when the judges decide whether he is insane or not." The trial starts Monday.

Asked whether Breivik will defend his actions in court, Lippestad said: "He won't only defend it, he will also regret that he didn't go further."