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The verdict eagerly awaited by the people of Norway finally came at around 10am on August 24. Anders Behring Breivk is to serve 21 years in prison for the Oslo bomb attack on July 22, 2011, which left eight dead, and the mass killing of 69 young labour supporters on the island of Utøya on the same day. The judges in the Oslo court took the view that the extreme right terrorist was mentally responsible, thereby ruling out the possibility that he would be sent to a psychiatric hospital. Breivik’s defence team announced that he would not submit an appeal.
This was the outcome demanded by Norwegian public opinion, a fact reflected by the coverage of the verdict in the Norwegian press —
It is easier to accept an outcome in which the perpetrator will have to serve a sentence and not just undergo medical treatment. We should not treat terrorists as though they were minors
remarked the daily Dagbladet. This view was also shared by thetabloid VG, which expressed reliefthat Norway’s justice system had to some extent been able to compensate for the country’s government and police, which were both criticised in an independent report on the July 22 killings for their failure to adequately protect citizens against the danger of terrorist attack —
After all of the things that were done wrong, it is heartening to hear that Anders Behring Breivik has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.
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