OSLO, Norway (AP) — Lawyers on all sides on Tuesday requested that one of the lay judges trying confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik be dismissed for saying the anti-Muslim extremist deserves the death penalty for killing 77 people in a bomb-and-shooting massacre.
Prosecutors, defense lawyers and lawyers representing victims agreed that Thomas Indreboe could not continue on the five-judge panel after admitting to making the comment on a chat forum the day after the July 22 attacks. Norway doesn’t have the death penalty.
The court was adjourned to discuss the issue, delaying the start of Breivik’s testimony.
The 33-year-old is being tried by a panel of two professional judges and three lay judges. The system is designed to let ordinary citizens have a role in the Norwegian justice system.
If Indreboe is dismissed he will likely be replaced by backup lay judge Elisabeth Wisloeff.
As at the start of the trial on Monday, Breivik entered the court smirking before flashing a clenched-fist salute. He will have five days to explain why he set off a bomb in Oslo’s government district, killing eight, and then gunned down 69 at a Labor Party youth camp outside the Norwegian capital.
Survivors of the July massacre worry that he will use his testimony as a platform to promote his extremist views. The key issue for the court to decide is whether Breivik is psychotic.
Breivik claimed Monday he acted in self-defense to protect Norway from Muslims by attacking the left-leaning political party he blamed for the country’s liberal immigration policies.
Breivik rejected the authority of the court, calling it a vehicle of the "multiculturalist" political parties in power in Norway. He confessed to the "acts" but pleaded not guilty, saying he was acting in self-defense.
Even his lawyers conceded that such a defense was unlikely to succeed, and said the main thing for them was to convince the court that Breivik is not insane.
One psychiatric examination found him legally insane while another reached the opposite conclusion. It is up to the panel to decide whether to send him to prison or compulsory psychiatric care.
Breivik could face a maximum 21-year prison sentence or an alternate custody arrangement that would keep him locked up as long as he is considered a menace to society.
