Norway mass killer to get new psychiatric assessment

A Norwegian court on Friday ordered a new psychiatric evaluation of confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, after an earlier report found him legally insane. Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen said in Oslo that the new evaluation is necessary considering widespread criticism of the initial findings, which suggested Breivik should be sent to psychiatric care instead of prison.

Breivik has confessed to a bomb and shooting spree on July 22 that killed 77 people. He denies criminal guilt, saying he's a commander of a resistance movement aiming to overthrow European governments and replace them with "patriotic" regimes that will deport Muslim immigrants.

The first court-ordered assessment found the 32-year-old Norwegian was psychotic during the attacks, which would make him mentally unfit to be convicted and imprisoned for the country's worst peacetime massacre.

That conclusion drew criticism from many outside experts who questioned whether someone who is suffering from a grave mental illness could carry out such a well-planned attack.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/01/13/norway-psychiatric-assessment.html


This image shows Anders Behring Breivik, taken from a manifesto attributed to him that
was discovered on July 23, 2011. Breivik has confessed to a bomb and shooting spree on
July 22 that killed 77 people. The Norwegian news agency NTB said before the attack
Breivik wrote a 1,500-page manifesto which contained this and other photos.