Oslo Court Sentences Extremist (Anders Behring Breivik) to Prison for Mass Killing

[ellisonz]

Anders Behring Breivik awaited his sentencing in an Oslo court on Friday. Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By MARK LEWIS and ALAN COWELL
Published: August 24, 2012

OSLO — A court on Friday sentenced Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who admitted killing 77 people, to at least 21 years in prison after ruling that he was sane when he carried out his country’s worst peacetime atrocity. The sentence was the most severe permitted under Norwegian law, but it can be extended at a later date if he is still deemed to be a danger to society.

Mr. Breivik, 33, who had insisted that he was sane when he carried out the attacks last year as part of what he called a campaign against multiculturalism in Norway, smiled when the verdict was announced. As he arrived in court on Friday, wearing a dark suit and tie, he flashed a right-wing salute with his right arm jutting from his body and his fist clenched.

His 10-week trial ended in June. Defense lawyers argued that Mr. Breivik was sane when he bombed buildings in downtown Oslo, killing eight people, before killing 69 people at a summer youth camp run by the Labour Party on Utoya island, and should therefore be sentenced to prison. Prosecutors said that he was mentally ill, was not criminally responsible, and should be hospitalized instead.

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Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen said on Friday that the decision reached by the five-member panel hearing the case had been unanimous. Reading from a 90-page judgment, she refuted Mr. Breivik’s assertion that he acted as part of a network called the Knights Templar, saying there was no evidence to prove its existence. Mr. Breivik has said he was present when it was founded in London in 2002.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/world/europe/anders-behring-breivik-murder-trial.html?_r=1&hp

[cali]

1. Ordinarily, I believe in imprisonment being humane and

geared toward rehabilitation. Although I don't believe that this fuckwad's imprisonment should be inhumane, I'm sorry he got such a short sentence (though I understand it may be possible to incarcerate him for a longer period of time), andI'm sorry he'll have accommadations simiilar to what he has now (a private bedroom, office and exercise room). He murdered 79 people. fuck him.

[joeybee12]

3. And yet Norway with sentences and a judicial system like this

has fewer crimes and murders than our vengance-based system.

[malaise]

4. 100% correct

[cali]

5. and clearly I'm not endorsing a vengeance based system. duh.

and I'm not even endorsing this fuckwad piece of filth being treated inhumanely. He slaughtered in cold blood 79 people- many of them children.

[ellisonz]

6. I too have a hard time stomaching this Nazi scum...

...but I think the most important thing is for Norway to do exactly the opposite of what he wants and carry-on with compassion and multiculturalism.