The confessed killer behind the July massacre in Norway disputes an expert conclusion that he is criminally insane, a newspaper reported on Saturday, quoting one of his lawyers.
“We have examined a good part of the report that details the conversations he had with the psychologists,” Odd Ivar Groen told the daily Verdens Gang.
Anders Behring Breivik, 32, “reacted by saying that it contained factual errors [and] lies and that his statements were taken out of context,” Groen was quoted as saying.
Prosecutors on Tuesday declared the right-wing extremist criminally insane when he killed 77 people on July 22 after two psychiatrists who examined him concluded that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
The lawyer said he spent six hours discussing the 243-page report with Behring Breivik.
“He thinks they considered some of his statements bizarre that he didn’t think were bizarre. And he does not share their judgement that he is mentally ill,” Groen said. “He is concerned over the fact that these experts do not have enough knowledge of political ideologies.”
By removing Behring Breivik’s criminal responsibility, the diagnosis will probably see him sentenced to receive psychiatric care in a closed institution — possibly for the rest of his life — instead of prison. The report has still to be reviewed by a panel of experts to ensure that it conforms with professional standards.
Behring Breivik’s trial is set to open April 16.
In the attacks, Behring Breivik first set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people, before going on a shooting rampage on the nearby island of Utoeya, where he gunned down another 69 people, most of them teenagers.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other