Breivik verdict due Friday, ending spectacular Norway trial
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OSLO (AFP) - An Oslo court is to hand down its verdict on Friday against Anders Behring Breivik for his twin attacks last year that left 77 people dead, bringing to a close one of the most spectacular trials in Norway's history.
The rightwing extremist has confessed to the attacks so there is no doubt about his guilt, but the question of his sanity was the focus of his 10-week trial that wrapped up in June.
On Friday, the five judges at the Oslo district court will announce whether they consider the 33-year-old legally responsible for his crimes, which determines whether he will spend a long sentence behind bars or in a closed psychiatric ward.
On July 22, 2011, Breivik set off a car bomb outside the government offices in Oslo, killing eight people, before going to the island of Utoeya, northwest of the capital, where he spent more than an hour gunning down another 69 people, mostly teenagers, attending a Labour Party youth camp.
