Norway gunman claims active network of partners
Angry Norwagians hurl abuse at him as he arrives at
court:
Norway: More than 100,000 Norwegians thronged central Oslo on Monday
in a vigil for the victims of a last week’s attacks hours after the
suspect told a court hearing that he had an active network of
accomplices.
Anders Behring Breivik, the gunman who said he was behind the
massacre of 76 people, did not plead guilty and was remanded in custody
for eight weeks while the investigation into last Friday’s twin gun and
bomb attacks continues.
As thousands of flower-carrying Norwegians filed through the city
centre in an overwhelming show of both grief and solidarity, even
Behring Breivik’s father said he wished his son had taken his own life.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg admitted the country would
be changed permanently by last Friday’s car bombing in Olso and mass
shootings on a nearby island, but vowed to ensure it remains an open
society.
He told the grimly defiant crowd massed in the city centre: “Evil can
kill a person but it cannot kill a people.”
Meanwhile the head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST),
Janne Kristiansen, said Behring Breivik had been flagged by the
authorities back in March because of a purchase from a Polish business
selling chemicals, but the incident was too insignificant to warrant a
follow-up.
It appeared at the time that “he lived a life that was incredibly
respectful of the law.”
Behring Breivik had been hoping to use his first court hearing as a
platform to explain his actions to the public, but a judge ruled it be
held behind closed doors and also barred the suspect from wearing a
uniform in court.
Judge Kim Heger said Behring Breivik would spend the first half of
his eight weeks in custody in solitary confinement, as police
investigate a claim he made during the hearing that he has built an
active network of accomplices.
Briefing reporters after the arraignment, the judge said the
self-styled Crusader told the court he wanted Muslim colonisation of
Europe to end.
“The operation was not aimed at killing the largest number possible,
but to send a powerful signal that couldn’t be mistaken,” Heger said.
Before the attack, Behring Breivik wrote a 1,500-page manifesto in
which he boasted he was one of up to 80 “solo martyr cells” recruited
across Western Europe to topple governments tolerant of Islam. The
suspect also indicated to the judge that he had accomplices who were
still at large. “It appears in the suspect’s police explanations and in
today’s court appearance, he has made statements that require additional
investigation — including a statement about ‘two further cells in our
organisation’,” the judge said.
Behring Breivik’s 40-minute court appearance came after the country
marked a minute’s silence which was also observed across Scandanavia.
But that was dwarfed by an evening vigil, where huge numbers flooded
into the centre of the capital, many waving red and white roses.
“Tonight the streets are filled with love,” Crown Prince Haakon told
the vast crowd, which local media estimated at 150,000.
It emerged Monday that the half-brother of Norway’s Princess
Mette-Marit — an off-duty policeman — was one of the victims of the gun
attack. “I think that ultimately he should have taken his own life
rather than kill so many people,” the gunman’s estranged father Jens
Breivik said in a Norwegian television interview conducted at his home
in the south of France. Oslo, Tuesday, AFP
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