Norway attack live coverage: Anders Behring Breivik in court
Anders Behring Breivik, accused of killing at least 93 people in a bomb attack and shooting rampage in Oslo and on the island of Utya, due in court today
11.51am: Was Breivik radicalised and brainwashed by far-right websites? Thomas Hylland Eriksen, an anthropologist based at the University of Oslo, believes so. Here's the piece he's written for Comment is Free:
There is a reason why the Norwegian police have not been overly concerned with rightwing extremism in recent years. It is plainly not very visible. An estimated 40 Norwegians currently belong to self-proclaimed extreme rightwing groups.
However, anyone familiar with the darker waters of the blogosphere would for years have been aware of the existence of a vibrant cyberscene characterised by unmitigated hatred of the new Europe, aggressive denunciations of the "corrupted, multiculturalist power elites" and pejorative generalisations about immigrants, targeting Muslims in particular
The fact that Breivik was Made in Norway, a homegrown terrorist with a hairdo and an appearance suggesting the west end of Oslo, and not a bearded foreign import, should lead not only to a closer examination of these networks, but also to a calm, but critical reflection over the Norwegian self-identity itself.
11.42am: Breivik's hopes of an open hearing have been dashed by Judge Kim Heger and the police.
Here's what the court has to say about the decision to conduct proceedings away from the public and the press:
Based on information in the case the court finds that today's detention hearing should be held behind closed doors.
"It is clear that there is concrete information that a public hearing with the suspect present could quickly lead to an extraordinary and very difficult situation in terms of the investigation and security."
11.40am: Court clerks have told Mark Townsend that Breivik's "views will be denied a platform".
11.35am: A spokesman for the Oslo district court says the judge decided to hold the arraignment behind closed doors following a request from police.
Mark Townsend, who is at the courthouse, says the judge may explain his reasoning later.
11.27am: Mark Townsend adds:
Court clerk just stopped me getting inside the court. Closed hearing. All media banned, late change of heart from judge.
11.26am: The judge has decided that the hearing will indeed take place behind closed doors, AP reports.
11.24am: Mark Townsend is hearing word that the case will be heard behind closed doors:
Reports suggest Breivik will not appear in public after all. Even for a nation as open as Norway, his bile deemed too unpalatable.
11.19am: My colleague Kim Willsher, who is looking at developments in France, reports that police there are protecting Breivik's father and not searching his house, as previously thought:
French gendarmes have denied carrying out a search at the home of Norwegian assassin Anders Behring Breivik's estranged father.
Local officials said gendarmes had been sent to the luxury villa in the village of Cournanel in the Aude to protect retired diplomat Jens Breivik and his Norwegian wife Wanda.
Antoine Leroy, state prosecutor at Carcassonne, said the officers were there in a "preventative role".
"There is no specific evidence to make us believe there is the slightest threat against this man, but it is prevention. There have been rumours of searches, but this is wrong. There has been no legal action at Cournanel," Leroy told French journalists.
The gendarmes have said they are expecting to be posted to guard t! he Breiv ik house for some time. Leroy confirmed reports that members of the French Foreign Legion had been seen outside the villa on Sunday, but said this was because a Legionnaire was acting as a translator between the couple and gendarmes.
In an interview published in the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang on Sunday, Jens Breivik said he was in a state of shock after hearing the reports of the massacre on Friday. He said he had not seen his son for years and had only discovered what he had done from reports on the internet.
He has since refused to answer questions from journalists outside his home. His wife Wanda, who reporters said does not appear to speak French, said in Norwegian that she had never met her stepson.
10.49am: Mark Townsend tweets the extraordinary reaction of the Norwegians he's spoken to:
One striking aspect is that of dozens of locals, including survivors from island, I've met not one has condemned Breivik. Tolerance prevails10.34am: Mark Townsend sends this moving dispatch from the Norwegian capital:
Huge crowd beginning to assemble in central Oslo ahead of a minute's silence in memory of the dead. Fleet of ambulance crews just arrived and laid red roses on the field of flowers that continues to grow outside the city's cathedral. The square of flowers is at least 30m wide.
"I never thought I'd see anything like this in Norway," said Tove Baust, 72, who had travelled an hour by bus to pay her respects.
Wiping her eyes, she added: "It's very emotional to see the people gathered here."
Many among the crowd are holding hands, some are sobbing as they lay wreaths.
10.08am: More from Mark Townsend in Oslo, who tweets:
Will the world get to hear Breivik justify his ! killing spree? Quite possibly. Given a court pass for hearing police want behind closed doors
10.05am: Here's a statement from the Norwegian prosecutors, via Reuters:
The judge will make the final decision on whether to allow the hearing to be heard by outsiders. Breivik has said through his lawyer that he wants to explain the motives for his actions at the hearing.
Prosecutors said they will ask for eight weeks of detention for Breivik at the hearing. That can be extended before trial.
The prosecutor will also request for closed doors during the hearing. This issue will be negotiated after the opening of the meeting [hearing]," the prosecutors said in an email in English.
"The judge will then read his decision to the press."
9.41am: One of the survivors of the Utya attack has told BBC Breakfast what he saw and heard on the island on Friday:
My friends came running in my direction, away from him," said Vegard Geroslaven Slan.
"Soon I heard gunshots and saw people fall to the ground and after that I saw him walk over to them and shoot them in the head while they were lying on the ground. At that point I obviously understood it was so serious I just ran. I hid in a small woody area and I hid in a cabin, just hid there under a bed until the police arrived."
Slan said he could hear the shootings from his hiding place.
He went on: "We were a group of almost 40 people hiding in this cabin and we could hear gunshots all the time. I knew he was going for the kill. It was terrible because I was thinking that he was shooting my friends while I was lying there but I was just praying and hoping that he wouldn't come into the cabin where we were and thankfully he didn't."
9.36am: Boris Johnson's Telegr! aph colu mn today is worth a read. Like so many before him, Johnson concludes, Breivik has attempted to dress up his own motives in a suit of specious geopolitical jargon:
Michael Ryan had no ideology in Hungerford; Thomas Hamilton had no ideology in Dunblane. To try to advance any other explanation for their actions to try to advance complicated "social" factors, or to examine the impact of multiculturalism in Scandinavia is simply to play their self-important game. Anders Breivik may have constructed a portentous 1,500 page manifesto, but like so many others of his type he was essentially a narcissist and egomaniac who could not cope with being snubbed. We should spend less time thinking about him, and much more on the victims and their families.9.28am: My colleague Mark Townsend, who is reporting from Oslo, sends this:
It feels like the entire country of Norway is waiting for the moment Anders Behring Breivik appears in an Oslo court charged with terrorism offences. In the capital, the mood remains subdued, locals describe the morning's rush hour as more muted than usual.Five minutes walk from the courthouse, a vast sea of flowers dedicated to the dead continues to spread from the city cathedral.
Already a large crowd is gathering in the central plaza ahead of a minute's silence dedicated the victims at noon, local time.
Tensions ahead of Breivik's appearance escalated shortly after breakfast with news that Crown Princess Mette-Marit's stepbrother was among 86 killed on Nyota Island. It seems he was the off-duty police officer placed on the island to guard the children.
At the island itself, search and rescue teams continue to trawl the waters for the bodies of those still missing.
One issue yet to be resolved this morning is whether the public and media will be allowed into the court. Police have requested that Breivik should appear behind closed ! doors, m indful that the 32 year old has stated that he wants to exploit the hearing in order to propagate his anti-Islamic, anti-immigration views.
A judge will make the decision ahead of Breivik's appearance, scheduled for around 1pm.
There is controversy too over whether a sentence handed to Breivik will be increased to reflect his threat to society. Under Norwegian law Breivik faces a maximium 21 years in jail, but this can be extended under certain circumstances.
Breivik has admitted the killings, describing them as "atrocious but necessary" although he refuses to accept criminal responsibility for them. Should the public and media be allowed into court, they are likely to watch Breivik deliver an unrepentant justification for the killing spree that has left at least 93 dead.
For now, a nation that can still scarcely believe what has happened holds its breath.
9.24am: A little more on Crown Princess Mette-Marit's stepbrother, who was among those killed on Utya. A court spokeswoman has told AP that his name was Trond Berntsen, and that he was the son of Mette-Marit's stepfather, who died in 2008.
9.19am: The death toll from Friday's attacks could be lower than previously thought, according to Norwegian police.
From what we now know, it looks like we will revise down the number of people killed [on the island]," said the head of Norway's police force, Oeystein Maeland.Until now, police said Breivik had shot dead 86 people on Utya and killed a further seven in a bomb explosion in central Oslo.
9.07am: According to AP, the prosecution will request eight weeks of pretrial detention for Breivik and a closed hearing.
9.02am: Breivik, who has described the attack as "atrocious" but "necessary", wants to tell Norway and the world why he did what he did, according to his lawyer. Geir Lippestad has also revealed that his client has asked to wear a uniform in c! ourt, bu t has not elaborated.
Police have not confirmed a local media report that they planned to request a closed hearing:
It's up to the judge to decide. It's not uncommon that the police will ask for it in advance but I don't know if the police will ask for that," Liv Corneliussen, a police prosecutor, told Reuters.
8.54am: According to AP, French police are raiding the house of Breivik's father:
French gendarmes are searching the house of the father of the man who confessed to attacks that killed 93 people in Norway.
About a dozen gendarmes are surrounding the house in Cournanel in southern France on Monday, entering and leaving at irregular intervals.
The house is cordoned off, and reporters do not have access.
The regional gendarme service confirmed the house was that of Anders Behring Breivik's father but would not comment on the search operation.
News reports have said Breivik's father, Jens Breivik, has not been in touch with his son in many years.
8.41am: This is Sam Jones, bringing you the Guardian's rolling coverage of the aftermath of the worst peacetime massacre in Norway's modern history.
Here's a round-up of the main developments overnight and this morning:Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old man accused of killing at least 93 people, is due in court at 1300 local time (1100 GMT)
Breivik has admitted being behind the bombing in downtown Oslo and shooting massacre at a youth camp outside the capital, but denies criminal responsibility.
Reports suggest the police have asked for the hearing to take place behind closed doors
Crown Princess Mette-Marit's stepbrother an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard on Utya was among those killed on t! he islan d
Breivik laid out his extreme nationalist philosophy as well as his attack methods in a 1,500-page manifesto. It also describes how he bought armour, guns, tons of fertiliser and other bomb components, stashed caches of weapons and wiping his computer hard drive all while evading police suspicion
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