Norwegian killer's hearing starts with Nazi salute
He gave a Nazi salute as he walked into the courtroom.
That’s mass murder, Anders Behring Breivik, on Tuesday (January 18), arriving for a parole hearing to decide if he should be released after spending more than a decade behind bars.
The far-right extremist set off a car bomb in Oslo in July 2011, and then gunned down dozens of people – mostly teenagers – at a Labour Party youth camp.
He killed 77 people in total.
Now, seen with a shaven head and dressed in a dark suit he re-entered the courtroom - thanks to a Norwegian law that allows anyone to apply for parole after 10 years.
He carried signs, printed in English, including one that said "Stop your genocide against our white nations" and "Nazi-Civil-War."
He was later told to stop displaying them as the prosecution presented its case.
Addressing the court, Breivik blamed his crimes on online radicalization by a leaderless network of far-right extremists, which he said had motivated his attacks and brainwashed him:
"First, I would like to talk about what happened, who I was and who I am today. And some of the accounts will sound frightening to you and to the Norwegian public but it's important and relevant and explains how brainwashed I was ten years ago and how many are equally radical today."
42-year-old Breivik is serving Norway's maximum sentence of 21 years, which can be extended indefinitely if he is deemed a continued threat to society.
Proceedings will take place over a maximum of four days in a prison gymnasium converted into a makeshift courtroom, with a decision expected about a week later.
