Norway gunman sane, says new psychiatric prob

OSLO - Agence France-Presse

A file photo taken on February 6, 2012 shows Norwegian rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to killing 77 people on July 22, 2011, appearing in court in Oslo. AFP Photo

Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway last July, was not psychotic at the time of the twin attacks and can thus be held criminally responsible, a new psychiatric probe concluded today.

"The experts' main conclusion is that the accused, Anders Behring Breivik, is not considered to have been psychotic at the time of the actions on July 22, 2011," the Oslo district court said in a statement which reopens the debate on whether the self-confessed killer can be sent to prison.

"That means that he is considered criminally responsible at the time of the crime." The new evaluation counters the findings of an initial probe that found Breivik was suffering from "paranoid schizophrenia," which meant he would most likely be sentenced to psychiatric care instead of prison.

On July 22, Breivik first set off a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people, before travelling to the small island of Utoeya northwest of the capital where he spent more than an hour methodically shooting and killing another 69 people, mostly teenagers.
 
The victims had been attending a summer camp hosted by the ruling Labour Party's youth organisation.

The conclusions of the second psychiatric evaluation, which was ordered by an Oslo court amid an outcry over the initial exam findings, were published just six days before the Breivik's trial is set to start.

In the end however, it will be up to the Oslo court judges to determine his mental state when they publish their verdict around mid-July, thus deciding whether he will be locked up in a closed psychiatric ward or sent to prison.