Norwegian right-wing terrorist insane, say experts, may avoid jail
By Elham Asaad Buaras
Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik may be committed to a psychiatric institution indefinitely rather than sent to jail after psychiatrists declared he is criminally insane on November 29.
Breivik killed 77 people in July by bombing central Oslo and then gunning down dozens of mostly teenagers at a summer camp for the ruling Labour Party’s youth wing.
The 243-page report by the court-appointed psychiatrists also mentions that Breivik suffers from grandiose delusions, alluding to himself as the future regent of Norway and describing plans to carry out selective breeding on humans.
“The conclusion...is that he is insane,” Prosecutor Svein Holden told a news conference. He lives in his own delusional universe and his thoughts and acts are governed by this universe.”
If the court accepts the psychiatrists’ conclusions, the anti-immigration terrorist could be held as long as he poses a threat to society and may be released if found to be healthy.
Holden said Breivik had developed paranoid schizophrenia and was psychotic at the time of the attacks, and that his condition was persisting.
Many Norwegian experts expressed surprise that Breivik was found to be a paranoid schizophrenic without any evidence that he hears voices or suffers any other uncontrollable impulses.
“I can’t see any other solution than the court appointing new psychiatrists (to evaluate Breivik),” said Dr Arne Thorvik, a psychiatrist with 19 years of experience in working with the legal system. Thorvik is among the latest to read through the 243-page report prepared by the court-appointed psychiatrists Synne Sørheim and Torgeir Husby.
Thorvik and colleague Svenn Torgersen claimed the report lacked documentation for their insanity diagnosis.
They also dispute whether Breivik’s delusions can be characterized as “bizarre” and they question whether he is paranoid schizophrenic or paranoid psychotic.
“I can’t find any documentation of the ‘bizarre’ delusions,” said Torgersen.
He referred to a request from Breivik to dig up the remains of an old Viking king for DNA testing to see who among living Norwegians has the most similar DNA today. “This was called ‘bizarre” but it’s not,” Torgersen said.
“It’s fully possible, has been done in Asia to confirm descendants of Genghis Khan, and isn’t science fiction. It’s today’s science.”
Thorvik also called it a “weakness” that the report didn’t look for other clarification of Breivik’s statements than psychosis.
On November 14 Judge Torkjel Nesheim said that there was nothing to suggest that Breivik is insane.
The findings shocked many of the victims’ families who voiced fears that that Breivik could quickly be released from the psychiatric custody. Trond Blattman, who lost his son Torjus in the Utoya massacre, said the families had wanted a different conclusion: “We hope the legal process will give us a confidence that he will not come out earlier than if he had been declared sane by psychiatric experts.”
Muslim organisations have called for stringent psychiatric evaluations on all terror suspects describing the difference in the treatment of Muslim and non-Muslim terror suspects as “inescapable”. In a statement to The Muslim News a spokesman for the London based MPAC UK said: “The fact that Anders Breivik, a far-right terrorist with connections to Fascists in the UK, was declared mentally insane when he carried out his murderous attack on his fellow citizens in Norway contrasts starkly compared to the treatment Muslims face when facing terror charges.
“Those cases don’t seem to receive the same level of medical scrutiny. Instead the focus is on ‘Islam’, ‘Islamism’ or de-contextualised motives rather than their mental health. The difference in the narrative is inescapable.”
Source http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=5661
Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik may be committed to a psychiatric institution indefinitely rather than sent to jail after psychiatrists declared he is criminally insane on November 29.
Breivik killed 77 people in July by bombing central Oslo and then gunning down dozens of mostly teenagers at a summer camp for the ruling Labour Party’s youth wing.
The 243-page report by the court-appointed psychiatrists also mentions that Breivik suffers from grandiose delusions, alluding to himself as the future regent of Norway and describing plans to carry out selective breeding on humans.
“The conclusion...is that he is insane,” Prosecutor Svein Holden told a news conference. He lives in his own delusional universe and his thoughts and acts are governed by this universe.”
If the court accepts the psychiatrists’ conclusions, the anti-immigration terrorist could be held as long as he poses a threat to society and may be released if found to be healthy.
Holden said Breivik had developed paranoid schizophrenia and was psychotic at the time of the attacks, and that his condition was persisting.
Many Norwegian experts expressed surprise that Breivik was found to be a paranoid schizophrenic without any evidence that he hears voices or suffers any other uncontrollable impulses.
“I can’t see any other solution than the court appointing new psychiatrists (to evaluate Breivik),” said Dr Arne Thorvik, a psychiatrist with 19 years of experience in working with the legal system. Thorvik is among the latest to read through the 243-page report prepared by the court-appointed psychiatrists Synne Sørheim and Torgeir Husby.
Thorvik and colleague Svenn Torgersen claimed the report lacked documentation for their insanity diagnosis.
They also dispute whether Breivik’s delusions can be characterized as “bizarre” and they question whether he is paranoid schizophrenic or paranoid psychotic.
“I can’t find any documentation of the ‘bizarre’ delusions,” said Torgersen.
He referred to a request from Breivik to dig up the remains of an old Viking king for DNA testing to see who among living Norwegians has the most similar DNA today. “This was called ‘bizarre” but it’s not,” Torgersen said.
“It’s fully possible, has been done in Asia to confirm descendants of Genghis Khan, and isn’t science fiction. It’s today’s science.”
Thorvik also called it a “weakness” that the report didn’t look for other clarification of Breivik’s statements than psychosis.
On November 14 Judge Torkjel Nesheim said that there was nothing to suggest that Breivik is insane.
The findings shocked many of the victims’ families who voiced fears that that Breivik could quickly be released from the psychiatric custody. Trond Blattman, who lost his son Torjus in the Utoya massacre, said the families had wanted a different conclusion: “We hope the legal process will give us a confidence that he will not come out earlier than if he had been declared sane by psychiatric experts.”
Muslim organisations have called for stringent psychiatric evaluations on all terror suspects describing the difference in the treatment of Muslim and non-Muslim terror suspects as “inescapable”. In a statement to The Muslim News a spokesman for the London based MPAC UK said: “The fact that Anders Breivik, a far-right terrorist with connections to Fascists in the UK, was declared mentally insane when he carried out his murderous attack on his fellow citizens in Norway contrasts starkly compared to the treatment Muslims face when facing terror charges.
“Those cases don’t seem to receive the same level of medical scrutiny. Instead the focus is on ‘Islam’, ‘Islamism’ or de-contextualised motives rather than their mental health. The difference in the narrative is inescapable.”
Source http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=5661
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