http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-14/second-psychiatric-exam-ordered-for-norway-mass-killer/3772566

Second psychiatric exam ordered for mass killer
Updated January 14, 2012 06:47:06

PHOTO: Psychotic: gunman Anders Behring Breivik. (AFP: Norwegian Police) RELATED STORY: Norway gunman declared criminally insaneRELATED STORY: Norwegian gunman makes first public appearanceRELATED STORY: Norway remembers massacre victims
MAP: Norway

An Oslo court has named two psychiatrists to conduct a new examination of Anders Behring Breivik, the anti-Islam militant who killed 77 people last year, in an effort to end inflamed national debate over an initial report that found him psychotic.

Breivik has admitted detonating a bomb at a government building in Oslo that killed eight people and gunning down 69 more at an island summer camp for Labour Party youths in July.

If the court ultimately agrees with a finding that Breivik is psychotic, he will almost certainly be placed into a secured psychiatric institution rather than in prison.

"The extremely serious nature of the case dictates that additional questions should be investigated further," Oslo District Court Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen told a news conference.

"It seldom hurts to have more light shed on a case," she added, noting that a mental health specialist who has treated Breivik in prison had publicly disagreed with the court-appointed experts who declared on November 29 he was psychotic.

Breivik has said via his lawyer that he would refuse to cooperate, but the judge said that was not relevant to the decision.

Dozens of survivors and others affected by Breivik's bombing and mass shooting have demanded a new evaluation, arguing that only someone in control of his faculties could have carried out the systematic attacks.

Breivik has said he set out to punish what he called pro-immigration "traitors".

The 32-year-old Oslo native is set to stand trial from April 16 regardless of his mental state.

Assuming he is found guilty, court officials said, it will be up to a trial-judge panel to decide whether Breivik goes to prison for up to 21 years - the maximum prison sentence in Norway - or to a locked psychiatric facility.

Medical opinions weigh heavily in Norwegian legal system.

Prosecutors had said they intended to request treatment rather than punishment following the initial diagnosis.

Reuters

Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, norway

First posted January 14, 2012 01:05:28

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/13/norwegian-killer-psychiatric-evaluation

Anders Behring Breivik must undergo new psychiatric test, says Norway court

Move comes after initial report diagnosing mass killer as legally insane and unfit to be convicted was criticised by experts

reddit this
Associated Press in Oslo
guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 January 2012 13.29 GMT
Article history

Anders Behring Breivik's second psychiatric evaluation comes after experts questioned whether someone who is psychotic could plot and carry out a well-planned attack. Photograph: Jon-Are Berg-Jacobsen/AFP/Getty Images

A Norwegian court on Friday ordered a new psychiatric evaluation of confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, after an earlier report found him legally insane.

Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen said in Oslo that the new evaluation was necessary after widespread criticism of the initial findings, which suggested Breivik should be sent to psychiatric care instead of prison.

Arntzen said two Norwegian psychiatrists – Agnar Aspaas and Terje Toerrisen – had been appointed for the new evaluation.

Breivik has confessed to a bomb and shooting spree on 22 July that killed 77 people.

He denies criminal guilt, saying he is a commander of a resistance movement aiming to overthrow European governments and replace them with "patriotic" regimes that will deport Muslim immigrants.

Investigators have found no sign of such a movement and say Breivik most likely plotted and carried out the attacks on his own.

The first court-ordered assessment found the 32-year-old Norwegian was psychotic during the attacks, which would make him mentally unfit to be convicted and imprisoned for the country's worst peacetime massacre.

That conclusion drew criticism from many outside experts who questioned whether someone suffering from a grave mental illness could carry out such a well-planned attack.

Asked what would happen if the new assessment conflicts with the first one, Arntzen said both reports would be considered by the court when the trial starts in April.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/9011899/Norway-killer-Anders-Behring-Breivik-will-undergo-new-psychiatric-exam.html

Norway killer Anders Behring Breivik will undergo new psychiatric exam

Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik is to undergo a new psychiatric assessment, an Oslo Court has ruled, meaning he may still face prison for the 77 people he killed in a bombing and shooting rampage in July.

Anders Behring Breivik could potentially receive visits from those sharing his extreme anti-Islamic ideology. Photo: REUTERS

By Richard Orange7:00AM GMT 13 Jan 2012

Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen announced the appointment of Agnar Aspaas and Terje Toerrissen, two prominent Norwegian psychiatrists, at a press conference in Oslo today.
She noted that psychiatrists at Ila Prison, where Mr Breivik is being held had observed no signs of illness, making a second opinion necessary.
Mr Breivik, 32, has confessed to setting off a bomb that ripped through Oslo's government district on July 22, killing eight people, and then opening fire at the summer camp of the governing Labour Party's youth wing, killing another sixty-nine.
But in a manifesto he released on the day of the attack, he argued that the killings were "necessary" to alert white Norwegians to the threat of Islam.
In late November, two forensic psychiatrists, Synne Sørheim and Torgeir Husby, concluded that Breivik had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and so should be sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment, rather than prison.

RELATED ARTICLES
Norway killer Anders Behring Breivik 'is not psychotic' 04 Jan 2012
Norway considers fresh exam of Anders Behring Breivik 22 Dec 2011
Norway killer Breivik permitted to receive visitors 09 Jan 2012

Their conclusion was widely criticised by other psychiatrists who said that it was unlikely that a paranoid schizophrenic would be able to mount an operation as meticulously planned as Breivik’s attack.
Lawyers for victims of the attack last month called for a new psychiatric evaluation on the grounds that the psychiatrist monitoring Breivik in prison had reported no signs of schizophrenia.
“There is insufficient evidence that he is insane,” said Mette Larsen, one of the lawyers. “It is important for them to have a new assessment. They don’t need to have him convicted, but they need to have comfort that it is the right conclusion.”
Mrs Arntzen said that both teams of psychiatrists would be called to give their evidence to the trial in April.
Jarl Robert Christensen, whose daughter was killed on Utoya, said he was not concerned whether Breivik was in prison or in an institution.
“For me it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t care about it, he’s either going to be in jail or in psychiatry for his whole life, it doesn’t matter.”