Norway Massacre Trial Nears Conclusion

In Norway, the trial of self-confessed mass killer Anders Breivik is entering its closing stages. It could end as early as next week. Breivik has admitted that he killed 77 people in two incidents last July. One was a bombing in Oslo and the other, a shooting rampage at a youth camp on the Norwegian island of Utoya.

But the central issue at the trial is whether Breivik is sane. The experts just can’t agree. And that leaves a big question mark looming over the trial’s outcome.

Anchor Lisa Mullins talks to Per Egil Hegge, a journalist with the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, to get more details.

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Lisa Mullins: In Norway, the trial of self-confessed mass killer Anders Breivik is entering its closing stages. It could end as early as next week. Breivik has admitted that he killed 77 people in two incidents last July. One was a bombing in Oslo and the other, a shooting rampage at a youth camp on the Norwegian island of Utoya. But the central issue at the trial is whether Breivik is sane. The experts can’t agree and that leaves a big question mark looming over the trial’s outcome. Per Egil Hegge is a journalist with the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten; he is now in Oslo. You have been following this trial very closely. What have the psychiatric experts been saying about whether this man is sane and therefore responsible for his actions?

Per Egil Hegge: Well, there were two teams of psychiatric experts appointed. The first team was appointed just after the massacre and the tragedy and they delivered their report in November saying that he was legally insane and accordingly he cannot be sentenced to prison. This caused quite a storm of criticism so the court appointed a second team of psychiatrists and when they gave their report in April, they had the opposite conclusion that he is legally sane.

Mullins: Well Per, one of the reasons we’re speaking to you about this issue is that you have written a book that’s roughly translated as “The Sovereign Monster” in which you argued that experts, especially psychologists and psychiatrists, are misused in trials in Norway. Why is that?

Hegge: That is because the courts and the judges have treated them with too much reverence and too little criticism. I had my first experience of this many, many years ago when I was only 19 years old and a trainee journalist. This was a local trial in a small village in Norway where the expert who was an expert in motor vehicles took over the whole trial, parked the judge in a corner and got it the way he wanted.

Mullins: Has that been happening in other cases as well that you’ve seen? Is it a pattern?

Hegge: Yes, I have seen that in other cases which I have reported as a journalist and I’ve also been an expert witness myself and seen terrible outcomes of trials.

Mullins: Well, in this case we can say that there is a Norwegian Board of Forensic Psychiatry which is assessing these reports and I want you to comment on that in just a minute. But first, I want to introduce now Christin Bjelland who is the vice-chairwoman of the group that represents the survivors and relatives of Anders Breivik’s victims. Christin, your son (15 years old) was on the island of Utoya as well. Correct?

Christin Bjelland: That’s right. He survived; he’s okay. He’s still in school managing his everyday life as best he can, as well as so many hundreds of other young people.

Mullins: And that’s who you are representing as part of this group. What have the families of these young people and perhaps the young people themselves been saying about this conflicting testimony concerning Anders Breivik’s mental health and his sanity?

Bjelland: Some would very much like him to be accountable for what he has done. But, on the other hand, there are also many members that want him to be unaccountable because then he will be unable to publish anything. Nothing he ever says or does will be taken seriously. So, it’s very difficult to have one common voice for all the affected.

Mullins: I wonder, Per, if it’s possible that there would be two very distinct impressions and that both are valid, or at least there’s no clear definition on his sanity.

Hegge: That is a possibility. There is also a possibility that he has been feigning either illness or had succeeded in faking sincerity as the saying goes. But what is beyond doubt is that the Forensic Commission which has to approve the report by medical experts including psychiatric experts put up an absolutely unbelievable performance. The chairman of the commission who is a professor of medicine was not able to account coherently for what they had been doing.

Mullins: Let me ask you both in conclusion, Per and Christin, why in the bigger picture of this case, at least, this all matters in terms of accountability because, unless something unforeseen happens, Anders Breivik has confessed to the crime and he is very likely to spend the rest of his life in custody. Christin?

Bjelland: He will be taken away from society whether he is accountable or not. He will be locked away. Some of our members have asked, “Will I ever meet this person on the street again?” We have been promised that whatever the verdict is he will never face his victims again.

Mullins: And Per, what is the larger picture here for you in terms of the Norwegian criminal justice system?

Hegge: We now have to set up a commission to look over the role of experts in the Norwegian court system, the Norwegian legal system. But it is such a terrible tragedy that 77 people had to die before they did that. They should have done it long ago.

Mullins: I want to thank you both for talking with us. Christin Bjelland who is the vice-chairwoman of the group that represents survivors and relatives of the victims of Anders Breivik, and Per Egi Hegge who is an author and journalist with the Norwegian newspaper called Aftenposten, thank you both.

Bjelland: No problem.

Hegge: Thank you.

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