Oslo, Sept 19: The confessed perpetrator of a bomb and shooting massacre in Norway in which 77 people died is planning to give a speech at his pretrial detention hearing Monday, his defense lawyer said.
“He has announced he wants to give information or read something to the court,” Anders Behring Breivik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, told reporters as he arrived at the Oslo District Court.
Lippestad said he didn't know what the 32-year-old right-wing extremist was planning to say in the closed hearing, his third court appearance since the bombing in downtown Oslo and shooting massacre at a youth camp on Utoya island.
Police spokesman Roar Hansen told The Associated Press that police will seek another eight weeks of pretrial detention, including four weeks in isolation, as they prepare formal charges against Breivik.
The district court initially ordered an open hearing, but a higher court overruled that decision after police appealed it. Some of the more than 600 survivors were represented by lawyers at the hearing.
Breivik has confessed to the attacks but denies criminal guilt, saying he's in a state of war and believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe from being overrun by Muslim immigrants.
In a 1,500-page manifesto posted online before the attacks he called for a revolution to purge Europe of Muslims and punish politicians who have embraced multiculturalism.
Lippestad said his client has not expressed any remorse about his actions. AP
