Norway braced for Breivik judgment

Breivik, a 33-year-old Norwegian on a mission to expel Muslims from Europe, set off a car bomb that killed eight people outside government headquarters in Oslo, and then killed 69 others in a shooting rampage on Utoya island, where young members of the governing Labour Party had gathered for their annual summer camp.

The key question for the Oslo court is whether Breivik is sane enough to be held criminally responsible for the attacks.

If declared insane, he will be committed to involuntary psychiatric care, indefinitely. If found mentally fit, Breivik is likely to be sentenced to “preventive detention”. Unlike a regular prison sentence – which can be no longer than 21 years in Norway – that confinement option can be extended for as long as an inmate is considered dangerous to society.

It also offers more programmes and therapy than an ordinary prison sentence. Norway does not have the death penalty.

Breivik says he would appeal against an insanity ruling but accept a prison term.

Regardless of the sentence, Breivik will be taken back to Oslo’s Ila Prison, where he has been held in isolation for most of the time since his arrest. The prison built a psychiatric ward just for him in case he is declared insane. Even if he is, he would not be placed in that unit if he immediately appeals against the insanity ruling. He would only be transferred to the psychiatric ward once all appeals have been exhausted.

Prisoners at Ila have access to schooling that offers courses from primary grade to university level courses, a library, a gym, work in the prison’s various shops and other leisure activities.

Because Breivik is held in isolation, he does not have access to those things. In compensation, Ila has given him three cells instead of one, each about 86 square feet. One has gym equipment, another has a bed and the third a desk with a laptop computer. For at least an hour a day, he has access to a small courtyard covered by barbed wire.

Prison officials have been more secretive about the psychiatric unit. Breivik would be guarded night and day by a medical staff of 17 in a ward where he is the only patient. Norwegian health authorities, in approving the ward, specified that it must provide access to fresh air, as well as a restraint bed with straps.

Legal experts say it is unlikely Breivik will ever be released. It will not happen for as long as Norwegian authorities consider him dangerous to society. In theory, a patient committed to involuntary psychiatric care should be released if he recovers from the mental illness, but if he is still considered dangerous, he can be transferred to prison under a rarely used Norwegian law.

If sent to prison, Breivik could challenge a “preventive detention” sentence every five years. One of the reasons Breivik’s attacks were presented in such gruesome detail during the trial was so the horror of Oslo and Utoya would be well-documented for the day Breivik asks to be released.

In Norway, both prosecutors and the defendant can appeal against all or parts of the ruling. An appeals trial would be likely to be held early next year.

Breivik would appeal against an insanity ruling as he wants to be seen as a political terrorist, or as he calls himself, a “militant nationalist”.

During the trial he said that being sent to an insane asylum would be the worst thing that could happen to him and accused Norwegian authorities of trying to cast him as sick to deflate his political views.

His lawyers say Breivik is already at work writing sequels to the 1,500-page manifesto he released on the internet before the attacks.