The psychotic killer

The Norway attacks

The psychotic killer

Nov 30th 2011, 11:55 by C.M. | COPENHAGEN

 

 

 

THAT a man responsible for killing 77 people in bombing and shooting attacks was insane may not sound like news. Yet yesterday's conclusion, by a pair of court-appointed psychiatrists, that Anders Behring Breivik suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was in a psychotic state during his killing spree in Oslo and Utøya island in July has unsettled many Norwegians.

 

Under Norwegian law, offenders given such diagnoses are committed to psychiatric treatment in secure medical facilities rather than to prison cells. As Norway has abolished life sentences, had he been given a clean bill of health Mr Breivik would have faced a maximum sentence of 30 years. Should the psychiatrists' diagnosis hold (it still awaits ratification by Norway’s board of forensic medicine), he could spend the rest of his life locked up.

 

Yet offenders in psychiatric care have their cases reviewed by the courts every three years. Were doctors to judge Mr Breivik no longer a threat to society, he could, in theory, be freed far sooner.

That seems unlikely. Still, Brynjar Meling, a lawyer representing several families of the victims of July's killings, has called for a fresh psychiatric investigation, as have several politicians. All say they refuse to believe that crimes so long in the planning could be the work of a temporarily disturbed person.

 

Some expressed concern that the insanity diagnosis would distract from the political aspects of Mr Breivik’s murderous acts. Mr Breivik specifically chose to target a youth camp of Norway's Labour Party; a calculated decision by a right-wing extremist, they say.

 

Details of the extent of Mr Breivik's delusions, released yesterday, make for chilling reading. He imagined himself a future monarch of Norway, planned to establish reservations for breeding ethnically pure Norwegians, and said he carried out his crimes out of love for “his people”.

 

Earlier leaks to Norwegian newspapers detailed his plans to kill hundreds more people and listed dozens of potential bombing targets: an oil rig, a nuclear reactor, the royal palace, political-party headquarters and offices of newspapers.

 

Meanwhile, Norway's exposure to other attacks remains a worry. Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister, has set up a commission to examine the various security agencies’ responses to the July attacks. By August 2012 it must produce proposals for preventing and responding to future attacks.

 

Some think action is needed sooner. Last week a green paper on the future of the armed forces was released by the chief of defence. It contained no proposals for the co-ordination of army and police forces during and after a terrorist attack.

 

Most alarmingly to some, neither were there any plans to reinstate a crack unit of the home guard that was disbanded less than a year before the July attacks. This unit, HV-016, was founded in 1985 specifically to stop terror attacks. Its personnel worked part-time but had substantial military experience, including stints in Afghanistan, and were primed for rapid response.

 

One area in which they excelled was sharpshooting from moving helicopters, exactly what was needed during the shooting spree on Utøya. With no helicopters at their disposal, the police were forced to make a lengthy boat journey to the island while Mr Breivik continued his killing.

 

 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/11/norway-attacks