OSLO—Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik defended in court Tuesday his killing of 77 people in shooting and bombing attacks last year by saying they were preventive actions aimed at saving the Norwegian culture.
"I have completed the most sophisticated, spectacular and the most brutal political attack by any militant nationalist in Norway since World War II," Mr. Breivik told the court in its second day of proceedings, adding he would do it again if he could go back.
One of the lay judges in the trial against Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has been replaced after it was revealed that he made a comment on the Internet saying the death penalty would be appropriate. Kjetil Malkenes Hovland reports.
Mr. Breivik pleaded not guilty Monday at the start of the 10-week trial, but admitted to the actions, claiming they were justified because he is fighting a supposed Muslim invasion of Europe and is defending himself, Norway and Europe against political organizations that support a multicultural society.
On July 22 last year, Mr. Breivik killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo and 69 in a shooting spree at Utoya island, about 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, northwest of Oslo. Hundreds more were injured.
Earlier Tuesday, one of the lay judges—a member of the public not trained in law—was replaced by a deputy judge after it was revealed he made a comment on Facebook the day after the attack about the appropriate punishment for Mr. Breivik. "The death penalty is the only fair outcome in this case!!!!!!!!!!," lay judge Thomas Indrebo wrote on July 23 last year according to VG, one of Norway's biggest newspapers.
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Anders Behring Breivik, right, speaks with a member of his defense team in Oslo on Tuesday.
The death penalty doesn't exist in Norway. Instead, the 33-year-old Mr. Breivik faces 21 years of detention with the possibility of indefinite extension for as long as he is seen as a danger to society, or compulsory mental care, depending on whether he is deemed sane or insane.
Granted permission to read a 13-page statement to the court, Mr. Breivik said that in his view, a Marxist political elite has allowed too much immigration and has indoctrinated the media, suppressing the opinions of what he called "nationalists." "This tyranny is the real terrorism," he added.
The accused said that he represented the Norwegian and international anti-Communist, anti-Islamist resistance, and that he also spoke for a network called Knights Templar, which the prosecution has said is a figment of his imagination.
He claimed to be speaking on behalf of Norwegians, Scandinavians and Europeans who "don't want to lose their territorial rights." He also compared his attacks with the use of U.S. atomic bombs in Japan in 1945, and said Americans weren't evil, but tried to avoid more deaths by taking life.
"The 22/7 attacks were preventive actions to defend the Norwegian indigenous people and Norwegian culture, and I therefore cannot plead guilty," Mr. Breivik concluded.
The chief judge, Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen, interrupted Mr. Breivik on several occasions, urging him to tone down his rhetoric and finish his speech.
"I have only three pages left," said Mr. Breivik, who at one point threatened to withhold further explanation unless he was allowed to finish his speech. At one point, prosecutor Svein Holden asked the court to let Mr. Breivik finish his statement.
Mette Yvonne Larsen, a lawyer representing victim's families, said some of the next-of-kin were distressed by Mr. Breivik's statement. "Many think it is painful to hear him put the blame on the people who were killed and injured, and trying to make what happened their responsibility. He also encouraged further crimes, the way we understood it," Ms. Larsen said at a news conference after the trial.
Randi Johansen Perreau, who lost her 25-year-old son Rolf Christopher in the Utoya shootings said in an interview, "I think he got too much room to read this, and it's not usual in Norwegian courts." Her 14-year-old son survived the attack.
She said the worst part of Mr. Breivik's statement for her was that he said it was necessary to kill. "If this was a military action from a militant organization, it's strange to attack unarmed kids, most of them under 18 years of age," she said. Ms. Perreau said she refused to become angry with Mr. Breivik, even though he killed her son.
"He can't have my anger. Then I'll be in his world. He has taken enough from me by killing one of the dearest people in my life, and almost killed the other," she said. "He can't have my anger, it should be used more constructively, to build the democratic society that we want."
She added: "I hope that July 22 and what happened to us make us become less naïve. But I hope we don't lose the ability to do good—that this will prevail, not bitterness and aggression, which will create the same thing that the perpetrator showed on July 22."
Mr. Breivik said he cried when the prosecutor showed his propaganda video in court Monday because of sorrow for his country. "I thought about my ethnic group and my country dying," he said.
When asked by prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh if he acted alone, and if he had given himself the mandate to go through with the attack. "In a way, you can say that," he said. The prosecution believes Mr. Breivik acted alone while the accused maintains he is part of a network.
