Norwegian gunman Anders Breivik, charged with killing 77 people in twin attacks last year, wants to be acquitted on the grounds of self-defense, Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper said on Friday citing his lawyer.
Breivik, 33, has been declared sane after a new psychiatric examination and will go on trial in Oslo on April 16.
“He is going to invoke self-defense,” Dagbladet quoted his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, as saying. “We of course understand that that will not succeed, but we are obliged to present his arguments.”
Breivik has confessed to killing eight people with a car bomb in downtown Oslo on July 22, 2011, and then gunning down 69 others on the island of Utoya, which was hosting a summer camp for the governing Labor Party’s youth branch.
The gunman insists that he acted in self-defense to prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians and thwart the “Muslim invasion” of Europe.
Breivik claimed after his second mental examination that he regretted “not going further” and killing more people. He will most likely repeat his claims at the trial.
“I think we’re going to hear many very provocative statements from him. But we must endure it,” Lippestad said.
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