Anders Behring Breivik Trial: Norway Killer Asks To Confront Massacre Survivors

Anders Behring Breivik, left, confers with his defense lawyer Vibeke Hein Baera in the courtroom during his trial in the courthouse in Oslo, Norway Friday May 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Thomas Winje Oeijord/NTB Scanpix, Pool)

OSLO, Norway -- Survivors of a youth camp shooting massacre that left 69 people dead in Norway testified Wednesday about their panicked attempts to hide during the rampage, as the court turned down confessed gunman Anders Behring Breivik's request to question them on the stand.

Tonje Brenna, a leading member of the Labor Party's youth wing, described how she sought shelter behind rocks on the shore of Utoya island on July 22 as her colleagues were shot around her.

"I smelled gunpowder, it stung my eyes," Brenna, 24, told the Oslo court.

Breivik, who has admitted to the July 22 massacre and a bombing in Oslo that killed eight people earlier that day, briefly interrupted the proceedings with a request to pose questions to the witnesses. When the trial opened four weeks ago, the self-styled anti-Muslim crusader pleaded innocent to terror charges – even though he admitted to the facts of the case – saying he didn't recognize the authority of the court.

On Wednesday, he said he would consider dropping his defense in exchange for a chance to question those giving testimony. When the judge rejected his request, he complained that the decision was "ideologically" based.

The 33-year-old Norwegian has showed little sign of emotion during the trial, even when describing how he shot his victims multiple times in the head to make sure he killed them. More than half of them were teenagers.

Breivik's mental state is a key question in the trial. If found guilty and sane, he would face 21 years in prison, although he can be held longer if deemed a danger to society. If declared insane, he would be committed to compulsory psychiatric care.

In other testimony Wednesday, a local resident described going out on a boat to pluck terrified youths from the water as they tried to swim away from the island.

Oddvar Hansen, a resident near the lake, and his partner had rescued three girls, lifting them into the safety of their boat, giving them their coats to stay warm. Hansen's boat was then taken over by Norwegian commandos after their own boat broke down during the crossing to Utoya.

Hansen said he was instructed to crouch low as he transported the elite squad onto the island, the first police forces to arrive there. He was matter-of-fact as he described his actions, brushing off a prosecutor's praise of his bravery by saying there were many other boat owners who had done the same thing.

Bjoern Ihler, 21, echoed Hansen's lack of bravado as he described taking care of two young boys around age 10.

Staying constantly on the phone with his own father as the group ran for their lives while hearing the shots come closer, Ihler said he covered one of the boys with his own body and held a hand over his mouth so the child would not scream, panic, run away and get shot.

When he testified at the start of the trial, Breivik described how he wore a fake police uniform and drove to Utoya where he began his massacre around two hours after setting off the bomb. He said both attacks were aimed at the governing Labor Party, which he claims is destroying Norway's cultural identity by allowing immigration of Muslims.

The trial is scheduled to conclude at the end of June.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[IanElliott]

07:44 PM on 05/10/2012

Interesting that I live in Norway and cannot view the video of the trial 'from my location', even thouigh it is taking place in Norway.

[brutusmojo]

03:11 PM on 05/10/2012

And those who oppose the death penalty say what?

[Enso]

02:49 PM on 05/10/2012

If we get secularist right- wingers and Islamic right-wingers on the moon orbiting Uranus Europe will become a better place.

[Wonder Woman2]

10:00 AM on 05/10/2012

Sure let him "confront" them- let it be in private and give them baseball bats.

[beatnik]

09:57 AM on 05/10/2012

Right-wing ideology and conservatism is a disease throughout the world, not just in America.

[Zachary Barnett]

09:57 AM on 05/10/2012

Am I the only one flipping out that if he is found guilty and sane he can serve UP TO 21 years? WTH Norway? 69 People!

[shawshank]

09:29 AM on 05/10/2012

Many people applaud the Norwegians for the seemingly mature way they have handled Breivik and the tragedy. But, the question not being asked is 'will the sentiments have been the same if the perpetrator was a minority or a Muslim Norwegian.

In the short period between the massacre and the release of the identity of Breivik, it was assumed that it was an Islamic attack, and the sentiments weren't mature at all. Things simmered down when the perpetrator was a native one.

Scandinavians have never been fans of multiculturalism. Breivik is just an 'extreme' product of the society he lived in.

[GNOLOGY]

09:29 AM on 05/10/2012

wonder how he likes his salads tossed

grape jelly is good i hear

[chaya]

09:28 AM on 05/10/2012

In the Middle Ages, a murderer would be tied to a tree by the road. Every person who walked by would cut off a little piece of him.

Perhaps this is the kind of confrontation that should be offered Breivik.

[lilard2009]

09:12 AM on 05/10/2012

Why doesn't someone just kill this guy

[DINGCHIROPTERA]

09:02 AM on 05/10/2012

WHY is this man still alive? He should be put to death, but, not until all survivors are given a basket of rocks to hurl at him while he is on his way to the gallows

[GNOLOGY]

09:28 AM on 05/10/2012

the only other countries on the planet that engage in capital punishment are the usa and the other dicttatorships, no advanced western country engages in that horrible practice of revenge

better to let them rot in jail and receive punishment than to end their misery and make the rest of us murders too

but we're run by christians, so we'll continue to have the death penalty as long as we're run by hypocrites

[redjackrussel]

08:58 AM on 05/10/2012

even though he dosent recognise the courts authority. Yea, thats gonna set him free.

[wardropper]

08:48 AM on 05/10/2012

Not all our developments in justice have been positive ones.
The SCOTUS is one example of how justice can be perverted by special interests;
and this character is another one.
The law has simply not found a way of admitting the fact that not everybody inherits human genes.
A hundred or so years ago, we were all quite capable of saying about a case like this:
"That man is a monster, as shown by his lack of repentance and apparent peace of mind at the thought of what he has done. The fact that he cannot identify with the concept of an innocent victim and callously states that he wished to carry out further murders means one of two things:
1. He is mad, and should be removed from society forthwith.
2. He is not human, or at least a diligent servant of the forces of darkness.
Although in effect both scenarios mean that he is indeed mad.

Just get him out of our faces, please, Norway.
I'll trust you to see to the details.

[chaucer1]

09:13 AM on 05/10/2012

Amen 3X. Why give him a show trial at all? As for our Supreme Kangaroos, they're beneath contempt (pun intended).

[wardropper]

08:18 AM on 05/10/2012

Perhaps he'd like champagne and caviar and a luxury hotel suite to go with that request...

One could wish that this was Norway about 1,500 years ago, where justice was a somewhat simpler matter...

[DonnieReillyMMA]

09:16 AM on 05/10/2012

Yep, because swiftly executing a person who already killed 69 people would be worth the lack of due process and a fair trial for literally millions more!

[RealistBC]

08:11 AM on 05/10/2012

What could this thug gain by questioning the witnesses except to once again see the terror he caused in their eyes? I would deny his request categorically!