SUNDVOLLEN, Norway – Norway mourned on Sunday 93 people killed in a shooting spree and car bombing by a Norwegian who saw his attacks as “atrocious, but necessary” to defeat liberal immigration policies and the spread of Islam.
In his first comment via a lawyer since his arrest, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, said he wanted to explain himself at a court hearing on Monday about extending his custody.
In a rambling manifesto before the attacks, Breivik said he was part of a crusade to fight a tide of Islam.
“He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary,” Geir Lippestad said.
The lawyer said Breivik had admitted to Friday’s shootings at a Labour party youth camp and the bombing that killed seven people in Oslo’s government district a few hours earlier.
However, “he feels that what he has done does not deserve punishment,” Lippestad told NRK public television.
“What he has said is that he wants a change in society and in his understanding, in his head, there must be a revolution.”
Oslo’s acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim confirmed to reporters that Breivik would be able to speak to the court. It was not clear whether the hearing would be closed or in public.
“He has admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he’s not admitting criminal guilt,” Sponheim said, adding that Breivik had said he acted alone.
Police were checking this because some witness statements from the island spoke of more than one gunman, Sponheim said. (Reuters)
Here Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, center, his wife Ingrid Schulerud, right, and the leader of the Workers’ Youth League (AUF), Eskil Pedersen, left, pay tribute to victims of the twin attacks before a memorial service at Oslo Cathedral today.
