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Insanity ruling not likely in Norway

Aug. 1, 2011 - 10:53 By

Norway (AP) -- It's unlikely that the right-wing extremist who admitted killing dozens in Norway last week will be declared legally insane because he appears to have been in control of his actions, the head of the panel that will review his psychiatric evaluation told The Associated Press.

A boy leaves some flowers thousands of flowers and tributes are laid outside the Oslo Cathedral in Oslo, Norway in memory of the victims of July 22 bomb attack and shooting rampage, Sunday, July 31, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)

The decision on mental state will determine whether he can be held criminally liable and punished with a prison sentence or sent to a psychiatric ward for treatment.

The July 22 attacks were so carefully planned and executed that it would be difficult to argue they were the work of a delusional madman, said Dr. Tarjei Rygnestad, who heads the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine.

In Norway, an insanity defense requires that a defendant be in a state of psychosis while committing the crime with which he or she is charged. That means the defendant has lost contact with reality to the point that he's no longer in control of his own actions.

“It's not very likely he was psychotic,” Rygnestad told the AP.

The forensic board must review and approve the examination by two court-appointed psychiatrists before the report goes to the judge hearing the case. The judge will then decide whether Breivik can be held criminally liable.

Rygnestad told the AP a psychotic person can only perform simple tasks. Even driving from downtown Oslo to the lake northwest of the capital, where Breivik opened fire at a political youth camp, would be too complicated.

“If you have voices in your head telling you to do this and that, it will disturb everything, and driving a car is very complex,” Rygnestad said.

“How he prepared” for the rampage -- meticulously acquiring the materials and skills he needed to carry out his attack while maintaining silence to avoid detection -- argues against psychosis, Rygnestad added.

By his own account, the 32-year-old Norwegian spent years plotting the attack. On July 22, he set off a car bomb that killed eight people in downtown Oslo's government district, then drove north to a youth camp on Utoya, a small lake island set amid a quiet countryside of pines and spruces.

There, he spent 90 minutes executing 69 people, mostly teenage members of the youth wing of Norway's governing Labor Party.

In a 1,500-page manifesto released just before the attacks, Breivik describes his two-pronged attack as the opening salvos of a new crusade that, by 2083, will purge Europe of Muslims and the “cultural Marxists” he complains are letting them have the run of the continent.

Breivik, who is being held pending trial, has admitted to the facts of the case, but denies criminal guilt because he believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe, his defense attorney Geir Lippestad said, hinting at a possible insanity defense.

“This whole case has indicated that he's insane,” Lippestad told reporters last week.

Lippestad did not return calls over the weekend seeking reaction to Rygnestad's comments.

On Sunday, a Twitter account under Breivik's name appeared to be hacked into.

“This twitter account has been seized by (hashtag) NORIA” and “this twitter account will be deleted soon,” two of the postings said.

“We want Anders to be forgotten. Labels like “monster,” or “maniac” won't do either. Media should call him pathetic; a nothing. (hashtag) Forgethim,” read another tweet. The tweets were deleted later.

Previously, the account had only one tweet, on July 17, loosely citing English philosopher John Stuart Mill: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.”

If tried and convicted of terrorism, Breivik will face up to 21 years in prison or an alternative custody arrangement that could keep him behind bars indefinitely.

If he is declared insane, a judge could order him institutionalized in a psychiatric ward only so long as he is deemed mentally ill, though Norway does have provisions for keeping dangerous, but no longer insane, people in custody even after they're discharged from the hospital.

Judging by his manifesto, it's not likely that Breivik would want to pursue an insanity defense if it were up to him. He anticipates that, after his attack, he will be labeled “psycho,” “maniac” and “insane.”

“I have an extremely strong psyche (stronger than anyone I have ever known),” he wrote.

Two Norwegian psychiatrists selected by the court this week are set to complete their evaluation of Breivik by Nov. 1.

To prove insanity, most American courts require that the defendant be possessed by an “irresistible impulse” to commit the alleged crime -- a mental illness that prevented the defendant from controlling his or her actions.

Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people when he set off a car bomb, similar in many ways to Breivik's, that tore through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

“Timothy thought he was starting a revolution, too,” said Dr. Seymour L. Halleck, a forensic psychiatrist who examined McVeigh to determine whether he was competent to stand trial.

To carry out such an attack, “you need a certain kind of competency and determination -- and some need to make a mark on the world,” Halleck said. “There was nothing we found psychotic about Timothy McVeigh.”


<한글 뉴스>

노르웨이 연쇄테러범 "정신이상 판정 받지 않을듯"


지난 22일 폭탄테러와 총기 난사로 최소 77명의 목숨을 앗아간 아네르스 베링 브레이비크(32)가 법적으로 정신이상 판정을 받지는 않을 것 같다고 그의 정신감정을 맡은 패널 책임자가 31일 밝혔다.

노르웨이 법의학위원회의 타르야이 리그나이스타드 위원장은 이날 AP에 브레이 비크가 자신의 행동을 통제해온 것으로 보인다며 이같이 예상했다.

현지에선 피고가 정신장애에 따른 무죄 항변(insanity defense)을 하기 위해서 는 범행 동안 정신이상 상태에 있었음을 입증해야 한다.

리그나이스타드 위원장은 "브레이비크가 정신병자가 아닐 가능성이 대단히 크다 "고 강조했다.

법의학위원회는 법원이 임명한 두 명의 정신병 의사가 실시하는 브레이비크에 대한 정신감정을 검토하고 승인해야 한다.

그러면 판사는 이를 토대로 브레이비크에 대해 형사 책임을 물을지를 결정하게 된다.

리그나이스타드 위원장은 정신이상자 경우 단순한 일 밖에 할 수 없다면서 가령 오슬로 시내에서 차를 몰고 무차별 발포를 했던 청소년 캠프가 있는 북서부 호수까 지 가는 게 그에겐 너무 복잡한 것이라고 설명했다. (연합뉴스)