A judge ordered the suspect behind the twin massacres in Norway to remain in jail for eight weeks, but despite not entering a guilty plea, he claimed to have created a network capable of spreading terror.
Anders Behring Breivik, who stands accused of killing 94 people in a bomb attack in central Oslo and a shooting rampage on the nearby island of Utøya on Friday, told the court hearing he had “two further cells” in his organisation, according to the court registrar.
The 32-year-old was driven in and out of the downtown Oslo courthouse wearing a red pullover, after the judge dismissed his bid to court publicity by wearing a military uniform three days after he shot dead 86 people on Utøya, shortly after unleashing the deadly car bomb in Oslo that felled eight.
Immediate risk
“There is an immediate risk that the accused would tamper with evidence if he were now released,” Judge Kim Heger said after the closed-door hearing.
Behring Breivik will be held in solitary confinement for the first four weeks, with a ban on all communication with the outside world, in a bid to aid a police investigation into his acts.
The suspect admitted the facts of the case but did not enter a guilty plea.
“Despite that the accused has acknowledged the actual circumstances, he has not pleaded guilty,” judge Heger told reporters, through an official interpreter, after closing off the hearing.
“The court finds that out of consideration to the investigation, it is important that the accused not be given the opportunity to communicate with others.”
The prosecution asked for the usual four-week custody limit to be doubled — and for the first four weeks to see Behring Breivik placed in isolation, with a full “ban on letters and visits”.
“The court finds that the conditions for isolation are met,” the official said, adding that “the isolation is set for four weeks.”
Uniform forbidden
The judge ruled ahead of the hearing that the suspect was “not allowed to present himself in uniform.”
But police are now taking seriously his claim that he has others ready to act, with a court official saying “police will probe” the claim.
Norwegian police on Sunday raided a property in Oslo in connection with the case but released a number of suspects shortly after they were detained there.
A Scotland Yard expert from London is currently assisting the Oslo police, after the suspect’s manifesto detailed a nine-year gestation period for a European revolutionary crusade against Muslim colonisation in a 1Â 500-page document released just before Friday’s killing rampage. — AFP