ANDERS BEHRING Breivik, the fanatical anti-immigration and anti-Muslim activist who has admitted to killing 77 people, was subjected to his first public interrogation yesterday.
For the first time since his trial began on Monday his apparently calm and at times smiling, smug exterior slipped, and he showed his irritation with prosecution questioning.
“Stick to the issue and not the person,” he instructed public prosecutor Inga Bejer, a remark that provoked laughter in the courtroom.
The tone of the prosecutors’ questioning was sharper and more confrontational than on previous days. Proceedings were not broadcast.
Breivik was being grilled about his association with far-right extremists who he claimed to have met Liberia and London in spring 2002. The self-proclaimed “ultranationalist” killer took the stand defiantly, insisting the so-called Knights Templar order to which he claims to belong exists and is not a figment of his imagination.
The prosecution argues the order exists only in Breivik’s head and that a meeting he claims to have had with a militant Serbian “war hero” in Liberia is fantasy.
According to Breivik, this Serb was on the run over war crimes which included “the massacre of Muslims”. This is an apparent reference to paramilitary Serbian commander Milorad Ulemek, a former commander of the Serbian secret police special unit the Red Berets, who was convicted of the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Ðindic. Ulemek is serving a prison term of 120 years.
The development of Breivik’s radicalisation and involvement in far-right extremist groups was the main theme of proceedings yesterday.
Despite confrontational questioning by the prosecution, he repeatedly refused to divulge any details apart from confirming the existence of a far-right extremist he has been in touch with.
He countered prosecution arguments by saying he was aware of their tactics and strategy. Any hints of moving away from the issue of his “radicalisation” were countered with expressions such as: “I will not make your delegitimation assignment any easier.”
Breivik also claimed to have met similarly minded nationalists in London. He claimed to have had meetings with three Englishmen who, with himself, helped in the establishment of the Knights Templar organisation. Breivik says one of the three was his “mentor”, who used the moniker “Richard the Lionheart”.
When pressed to elaborate on this and other claims he became increasingly agitated. He bit on his lip and occasionally fiddled with his hands.
When arrested, Breivik had told police there were two other “terror cells” in Norway that were capable of killing up to 300 people.
He claimed in court he had decided to connect with international extremist nationalists, as Norwegian nationalists were exposed to increasing surveillance by the security services.
During a presentation of images from his manifesto shown to the court he smirked and said that in retrospect he considered such examples as “pompous” and “in need of further editing”.
He added haughtily that the prosecution’s evidence did not reflect his best work.
Under questioning, he said he found a common bond with the notion of the Serbs as modern-day crusaders.
He had “given up on democracy” and lost faith in “the old-school ideology of Nazism”. He was not a Nazi, he claimed, adding that “Nazis were expansionist – and I am an isolationist”.
The nationalistic Serbian struggle was a catalyst for his thinking, especially with regard to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing of Serbia in 1999. He strongly criticised Norway’s role in the campaign and appeared outraged at the injustice served on Serbians.
Somewhat incongruously, he referred to al-Qaeda as “a role model” for the Knights Templar movement in the expansion of “Christian nationalism”.
“They use extreme methods to force change . . . and have been successful in doing so,” he said.