OSLO, Norway — The self-described perpetrator of the mass killings in Norway told authorities there that he expects to spend the rest of his life in prison but two other cells in his terror network could still launch attacks, officials said Monday.
Anders Behring Breivik has admitted bombing Norway’s capital and opening fire on a political youth group retreat, but he entered a plea of not guilty, saying he acted to save Europe from Muslim immigration.
Prosecutor Christian Hatlo told reporters that Breivik was very calm and “seemed unaffected by what has happened.” He said Breivik told investigators during his interrogation that he never expected to be released.
Breivik alluded to two other “cells” in a network he describes as a new Knights Templar, the medieval crusaders who protected Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. At one point, a manifesto he released shortly before the attack briefly refers to an intention to contact two other cells — a term he says refers to “small, autonomous groups” led by individual commanders.
Police announced, meanwhile, that they had dramatically overcounted the number of people slain in a shooting spree at a political youth group’s island retreat and were lowering the confirmed death toll from 86 to 68.
The overall toll in the attack now stands at 76 instead of 93. Police spokesman Oystein Maeland said that higher, erroneous figure emerged as police and rescuers were focusing on helping survivors and securing the area, but he did not immediately explain more about how the overcounting occurred.
Police also raised the toll from a bombing outside the government’s headquarters in Oslo before the shooting spree, from seven to eight. (AP)
Here, Norway’s twin terror attacks suspect Anders Behring Breivik, left, sits in an armored police vehicle after leaving the courthouse following a hearing in Oslo today where he pleaded not guilty to one of the deadliest modern mass killings in peacetime.
