Anders Breivik Trial Day 6: Norway massacre was “a small barbarian act to prevent a larger barbarian act”

Anders Behring Breivik says his killings in Norway last July were “a small barbarian act to prevent a larger barbarian act” on what may be his final day of evidence.

Anders Breivik, 33, has already admitted the Oslo bombing and island shootings that left 77 people dead. The main aim of the trial is to decide whether he is sane.

He said he “lost absolutely everything” on 22 July, all his family and friends.

Therefore he understood the loss he imposed on others, he said.

On 22 July 2011, Anders Breivik set off a car bomb near government buildings in Oslo, killing eight, and then massacred 69 participants in a Labour Party youth camp on the nearby island of Utoeya.

Anders Breivik said he wanted to apologize for killing or injuring the “innocent” people in the Oslo bombing who were just passing by and had no political connections.

But he offered no apology for the Utoeya massacre.

In his other evidence on Monday, Anders Breivik said he:

• believed political leaders would be “emotionally unstable” and would instruct police to execute him after his arrest at Utoeya

• told police he believed his family might be executed after his actions

• considered at one stage stealing a small plane from a nearby airfield to flee after his actions

• planned to make a video recording of himself decapitating former PM Gro Harlem Brundtland while reading a prepared text spelling out her “crimes”

• repeatedly replied “no comment” to any questions about other members of an anti-Muslim network called the Knights Templar, which Anders Breivik says he belongs to but which prosecutors believe does not exist

Anders Breivik admits killing all 77 victims, but denies criminal responsibility, saying he was defending Norway from multiculturalism.

He said he had envisaged the most important attack as being the Oslo bombing, but Utoeya “became the most important attack when the government building did not collapse” as planned.

Depending on whether he is found sane or not, he faces either prison or committal to a psychiatric institution.

Anders Breivik himself maintains he is sane, but a practitioner of political extremism.

In earlier statements to the court, he insisted he was “under normal circumstances a very nice person, very caring about those around me”.

He said he “absolutely” understood why his testimony was horrifying to others.

But said he had embarked on a deliberate programme of “dehumanization” in 2006 to prepare to carry out killings.

Anders Breivik has been allocated five days in total to give evidence, with the entire proceedings expected to last 10 weeks.