Norwegian mass killer Breivik sentence due Aug 23

PanARMENIAN.Net - Thirteen months after his killing spree -- a bomb attack and Europe's deadliest rampage by a lone gunman in peacetime -- Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik will Friday hear his sentence, AFP reports.

Breivik has admitted killing 77 people in the attacks that traumatized Norway and shocked the world, claiming eight victims in an Oslo blast and taking 69 more lives, mostly teenagers', in a shooting frenzy at an island summer camp.

The 33-year-old loner -- who sees himself as a Nordic warrior against Europe's "Muslim invasion" and against all those who promote multiculturalism -- is widely expected to be locked away for the rest of his life.

The main question is whether it will be in a jail cell or a mental ward. Breivik, who laid out his hateful world view in a rambling 1,500-page online manifesto, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and declared criminally insane after his bloody rampage on July 22 of last year.

However, a public outcry led to a second assessment, which found him legally sane -- a view shared by most Norwegians in polls, and by Breivik himself who has said he would accept prison but appeal against closed psychiatric treatment.

Prosecutor Svein Holden, who wants Breivik to be found criminally insane, has said that "it would be worse to sentence someone who is psychotic to prison than to send someone who is not psychotic to psychiatric care".

The presiding judges will deliver the verdict and sentence on terrorism charges in a hearing from 0800 GMT, held in Oslo under tight security and to be attended by survivors, victims' relatives and media from around the world.

Norway's penal code does not have the death penalty or life in prison, and the maximum prison term for Breivik's charges is 21 years. However, inmates who are considered a threat to society can be held indefinitely.