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Breivik Claims Innocence

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Norwegian self-confessed shooter Anders Breivik who went on trial Monday over a deadly massacre last year that claimed 77 lives, pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self-defense.

Norwegian self-confessed shooter Anders Breivik who went on trial Monday over a deadly massacre last year that claimed 77 lives, pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self-defense.

"I admit to the acts, but not criminal guilt," he said at the hearing, adding that he was acting in self-defense.

Breivik also rejected the authority of the court as he came in the courtroom to testify on the July 22 attacks that shocked peaceful Norway.

"I don't recognize Norwegian courts because you get your mandate from the Norwegian political parties who support multiculturalism," Breivik said as he was given the right for comments to the court.

Breivik, 33, is charged with murdering eight people in a car bomb explosion in downtown Oslo on July 22, 2011, and then gunning down 69 others, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp on the island of Utoya. He claims the attacks were needed to protect Norway from being overrun by Muslims.

The anti-Muslim killer remained emotionless as the prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh was reading the list of victims, describing the details of each person’s death.

The gunman however started crying when the court showed the video the killer uploaded to YouTube six hours before the bomb in the center of Oslo went off.

The 12-minute video, entitled Knights Templar 2083, features extracts from Breivik’s 1,500-page manifesto where he expresses his extreme anti-Muslim political views and describes the attacks which are to be carried out.

Breivik also told the court he was a rebel fighter in a militant group created along the lines of the Knights Templar - a Western Christian military order that fought during the crusades. The police found no trace of such organization.

"In our opinion, there is no such network," Prosecutor Svein Holden said at the hearing.

The self-confessed gunman may face a maximum 21-year sentence if found mentally stable, though the jail term can be extended for as long as an inmate is considered a menace to society.

The trial will take place amid tightened security with some 100 police officers deployed to the court. Breivik, who has received life threats since he was arrested, sat behind a bullet-proof screen at the hearing. Relatives of his victims are allowed to watch the trial in a specially built 200-seat courtroom.

 

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