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NORWAY: BREIVIK TRIAL LAY JUDGE DISMISSED OVER DEATH PENALTY COMMENT
April 17, 2012: One of five judges in the trial of Norwegian mass killer Ander Behring Breivik has been dismissed amid revelations he had called for the death penalty in a post on Facebook.
After a 30-minute recess to reach a decision, chief judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen said lay judge Thomas Indreboe was unfit to continue because of the comments.
He will be replaced by one of two substitute judges already in court.
After the killings last July, Mr Indreboe posted "the death penalty is the only just outcome of this case".
The trial is due to last 10 weeks and focus primarily on his sanity, which will determine if he will get a 21-year jail term which could then be extended indefinitely if he is still considered a threat to society.
If he is found insane he could receive closed psychiatric care, possibly for life.
On July 22, Breivik killed eight people when he set off a bomb in a van parked outside offices of Labour prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was not present at the time.
He then travelled to Utoeya island where, dressed as a police officer, he spent more than an hour methodically shooting at hundreds of people attending a Labour Party youth summer camp.
The shooting spree claimed the lives of 69 people, trapped on the small heart-shaped island surrounded by icy waters. (Sources: radioaustralianews.net.au, 17/04/2012)
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