Anders Behring Breivik Jailed For 21 Years

http://news.sky.com/story/976517/anders-behring-breivik-jailed-for-21-years

Anders Behring Breivik Jailed For 21 Years
The man who killed 77 people in Norway last year smirks as he is jailed for a minimum of 10 years.

Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik smirked in court as he was jailed for 21 years after a judge ruled he was "not insane".

Breivik has been declared sane and sentenced to prison for bomb and gun attacks that killed 77 people last year.

Reading the ruling, Judge Wenche Elisabeth Arntzen handed down a sentence of "preventive detention" of at least 10 years and a maximum of 21 years.

This is the maximum sentence allowed under Norwegian law but such sentences can be extended as long as an inmate is considered too dangerous to be released.


Breivik in court
Breivik, who wore a dark suit in court, looked pleased as the judge read the ruling. As he walked into the courtroom he raised a clenched-fist salute.

Some who lost loved ones in the attacks welcomed the ruling.

"Now we won't hear about him for quite a while. Now we can have peace and quiet," Per Balch Soerensen, whose daughter was among those killed in the shooting massacre, told Denmark's TV2.

"He doesn't mean anything to me, he is just air."

Bjorn Kasper Ilaug, who rescued 24 youngsters from the island of Utoya, told Sky News he was relieved by the verdict.

"I hoped for this. It means we can move forward and justice is done. I hope the Norwegian authorities do not appeal this verdict."

Lawyers for the 33-year-old right-wing extremist said before the decision that Breivik would appeal any insanity ruling but accept a prison sentence.

Sky News reporter Trygve Sorvaag, who was outside the court, said Breivik "got exactly what he wanted" and there was no doubt that he would be happy with the verdict.

He added that the people of Norway are pleased with the verdict, which has strengthened their belief in the justice system. Tweets expressed how Norwegians could now move on after the harrowing massacre.

The 33-year-old admits detonating a bomb outside the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, killing eight people, and then driving to the island of Utoya where he shot dead 69 people at a Labour party summer camp.

As well as those who died, 242 were injured. The youngest victim was just 14 years old.

Breivik admits carrying out the attacks but says he was well aware of his actions, describing them as "cultural self-defence" to halt the "Islamisation" of Norway.

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

More follows...

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'Move on'? They've just stuck a sign on their nation saying, Come and kill us, we won't do anything to you.

Thanks, Pedro.

I thought Portugal was bad for only giving King Ghoba 25 years for three murders and countless rapes and assaults, but this.....?

Who on earth dreamed up the idea of maximum sentences, regardless of the crime?

bb1, your words are mine.

21 x 77 would have been justice, this isn't, IMO, Pedro.

Declaring him insane and locking him up for ever more would also have been a kind of justice.

But not this, it's a slap on the wrist for what he has done. It is also, IMO, dangerously close to legitimizing terrorism, providing the acts are carried out by whites.

The US doesn't make that mistake, it executed McVeigh - it doesn't matter to the victims what colour or religion their killers are. And it shouldn't matter to the legal system, either.

bb1, I agree with you. But, it is better to see breivik executed. no barsteward polluting this world.

IMO, it isn't just the original crimes, it's the message it's sending out. I have no doubt he won't just be writing his 'manifesto', he will be writing a book as well. He's a hero to the White Supremacist lunatics already; now they are going to see him as having got away with mass murder.

I can think of few better ways of encouraging right-wing whackjobs to see your country as a soft touch than this, frankly.

I have the horrible feeling that it's just a matter of time before there's a copy-cat.

Kill one person in Norway and you may get 21 years. Kill 77 and you will serve three months for every life you have taken.

I know it is being said that he can be held for more than 21 years if he is still considered a danger, but I wouldn't be in the least surprised if he is let out after ten.

Breivik admits carrying out the attacks but says he was well aware of his actions, describing them as "cultural self-defence" to halt the "Islamisation" of Norway.

The world is bigger than Norway; by not even finding him insane, it could well be argued that the court has found his 'cause' has some merit.

This is what he was doing in court this morning:



Far from punishing Breivik for mass murder, they've given him what he wanted, and that is the image going round the world right this minute.

I know, Lily. It's dreadful - it says Norway cares more about the Yuman Rites of a mass murderer than it does about its children.

It also raises questions as to whether he has sympathisers in the judiciary, IMO.

Poor baby hasn't got internet access in his cells - how long do you think it will be before someone decides a dongle is his Yuman Rite and he's speaking directly to his followers? And he isn't short of those in Europe.

It is completely unbelievable what is happening in the world. Or should I say, not happening?

I find this utterly appalling, Lily. It's all very well saying, Oh, but if he is judged to still be dangerous after 21 years, then he can be held for another five...

On this showing, it isn't going to happen. I will be surprised if he even serves the full 21 years.

God Almighty, he wasn't even prevented from giving Fascist salutes in court. I never thought to see such a thing tolerated in Europe again.

The judges noted that Breivik's extreme anti-immigration views are shared by others, but said it found no evidence that the modern-day crusader network that Breivik claims to belong to, exists.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/08/24/norway-court-deems-breivik-sane-sentences-killer-to-prison/#ixzz24U1WZens

Really? That's odd, because they are all over the media comments boards right this minute. The judge clearly has no idea just how many right-wing nutjobs think Norway was 'asking for it' because of its liberal policies - the very policies Breivik has exploited for his own ends.

They are either too naive for their own good, or they sympathise with him.

Will he be safe if they do let him out? It all seems to be a bit too tolerant to me, but will they increase his sentence when his time is up? A maximum sentence of 21 years needs looking at. He wouldn't get out in a hurry in Britain.

I gather that his sentence can be extended by five years at a time if he is still judged a danger to society, Sabot, but frankly, I will not be at all surprised if he is out before the 21 years is up.

I really do not 'get' why he wasn't ruled insane, instead of legitimizing his views like this. I know a lot of people think the UK is soft on crime, but thank God we have a whole-life tariff for real horrors like him.

He shouldn't ever be set free, Bonny. The man is a maniac. But I suppose that as long as other countries keep an eye on him then he will only be able to do damage in Norway. On their heads be it. And watch the buggers in UK that he said he was communicating with.

I know, Sabot, it scares me rather that Norway seems to have brushed off his links to other nutjobs so lightly. And they shouldn't have let him demonstrate his absolute contempt for their legal system by giving triumphant Nazi salutes in court.

May I add something to this? His sentence may be 21 years, but unlike in the UK where a life sentence can become a couple of years, he will serve the full 21 years and, if at the end he is judged to be unsafe to set free, an extension can be applied.

I hope you are right, LL, and the sentence is extended later. But just now, IMO, it is giving out a terrible signal to others of his kind - and Europe isn't short of those.

Lamplighter wrote:May I add something to this? His sentence may be 21 years, but unlike in the UK where a life sentence can become a couple of years, he will serve the full 21 years and, if at the end he is judged to be unsafe to set free, an extension can be applied.

But will it be applied for, LL? I don't care how safe he might be in 21 Years time, he still shouldn't be let loose. Ever.

IMO, one of the worst things is that by not ruling him insane, the judges have legitimised his beliefs. They have in effect ruled that sane people can think the way he does. They haven't made him an outcast, a lone nutter - far from it.

I fear their decision is going to have ghastly consequences in the future, and I hope to God I am wrong.

Political Correctness gone mad again. I don't know if he is insane, but he certainly ain't sane.

Fascist Salutes? I don't think I care. He won't be getting out while he is doing that. So I hope he keeps it up.

Has this verdict made Norway a safer place? No, not IMO - it's send out a message that if you massacre Norwegian children, well, nothing much is going to happen to you.

I hope I am wrong.

Sabot wrote:

Lamplighter wrote:May I add something to this? His sentence may be 21 years, but unlike in the UK where a life sentence can become a couple of years, he will serve the full 21 years and, if at the end he is judged to be unsafe to set free, an extension can be applied.

But will it be applied for, LL? I don't care how safe he might be in 21 Years time, he still shouldn't be let loose. Ever.

It is up to the the Norwegians to decide; as far as I recall, his mental and physical state, plus his attitude will be taken into consideration. I feel that this is not what should have happened, but it is the right of the Norwegians to deal with these matters themselves. But he will not be able to wriggle out of the sentence, as has often happened in the UK i have just heard on the TV that there may be an appeal by the prosecution against the sane verdict. There was a comment on German TV News by a parent of one of the dead kids before the verdict was announced that if they had had the death penalty, he would have voted against it being applied in this case; his reason? "What will the death of this man do for my child? Will it bring him back? No, but he must never walk free again, he is insane, let him be chained to a wall in a madhouse!" LL