Norway’s Breivik demands acquittal or death

Anders Behring Breivik has said he should be executed or acquitted for killing 77 people in Norway in July last year in what he said was a battle to defend Europe against mass immigration.Breivik made the statement in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, after a gruelling day of testimony in which he presented himself as a crusader defending Europe from immigration on behalf of a group of militant nationalists.“There are only two just outcomes to this case - acquittal or the death penalty,” the 33-year-old said, calling the prospect of a prison sentence “pathetic”.Norway has no death penalty and formal sentencing cannot exceed 21 years, though Breivik could be held the rest of his life if he is judged to pose a continuing danger.He could also be sentenced indefinitely to a mental institution.“If you embrace death before you go into action, you will be ten times as potent,” Breivik said. “I have embraced death.”‘Lone wolf’Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan, reporting from Oslo, said prosecutors were questioning Breivik’s credibility.“They questioned his claims of writing a manifesto for the ‘Knights Templar’ and Breivik on many occasions refused to answer some of the questions. There were times when Breivik did feel agitated and frustrated by some of the questioning,” our correspondent said.Breivik, who killed eight people with a car bomb in Oslo on July 22 and then shot 69 at a Labour Party summer youth camp, went on trial on Monday.He pleaded not guilty to terrorism and murder charges on grounds of “necessity” and has called his victims “traitors” with immigrant-friendly ideas.Asked how he had changed from a teenage vandal on Oslo’s prosperous west side to a methodical killer, he said he helped found a militant group called the “Knights Templar” in 2001 but refused to give any details to back up the claim.The original Knights Templar were a medieval brotherhood of European knights that prosecuted anti-Islamic crusades.Breivik deflected five straight questions about supposed allies and repeatedly tried to tell prosecutors how to phrase themselves. He became visibly irritated and swivelled a pen in his hand.