Norway judge orders Anders Behring Breivik to undergo new psychiatric evaluation

GlobalPost

A court has ordered Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in Oslo last summer, to go through a new round of psychiatric evaluations, after an earlier test found him to be insane, CNN reported.

Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen said on Friday the court wanted a second opinion on Anders Behring Breivik's sanity before his trial which is set to start in April. Arntzen did say this wasn’t a criticism of the previous report, CNN reported.

Read more at GlobalPost: Oslo shooter Anders Behring Breivik declared insane

"The extremely serious nature of the case dictates that additional questions should be investigated further," Arntzen said, Reuters reported.

If the court does find Breivik insane, he will almost certainly be placed under psychiatric care rather than be put in prison, Reuters reported.

Breivik, 32, admitted to setting off a bomb at a government building in Oslo in July, which killed eight people and then gunned down 69 more at an island summer camp for Labor Party children, Reuters reported. It was Norway’s worst peacetime massacre.

Read more at GlobalPost: Anders Behring Breivik ordered held in solitary confinement (VIDEO)

He will now undergo more tests by two doctors, Agnar Aspaas and Terje Toerrisen, in order to determine his sanity, the Associated Press reported. He was declared clinically insane at the time of the attacks in an assessment in November. The diagnosis came under heavy public criticism, including some experts who questioned whether an insane man could formulate such well-planned attacks, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Breivik has denied any criminal guilt and has said he is a commander in a resistance movement aimed to overthrow European governments and replace them with regimes that deport Muslim immigrants, the AP reported. No sign of such a movement has been found.

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