Norwegians on Friday were forced to relive the shock and horror of the July 22 attacks as Anders Behring Breivik told an Oslo court how he shot dead 69 people and injured many more in a shooting spree on what had been known as the idyllic island of Utoya.
The shooting spree at a Labour Party youth camp took place shortly after the self-confessed mass-murderer killed eight people by detonating a bomb outside a government building in Oslo. The painful memories of Norway's biggest tragedy in decades resurfaced in the city's courtroom as Breivik recounted his movements on the island, detailing how he shot his victims at close range. "I thought it was now or never," he said of the first minutes on the island. "Either I have to carry through my plan or get arrested."
Although he stated that he "did not remember much about what happened on the island," his testimony ran for over 90 minutes. In chronological order, he described how he moved from location to location shooting at victims, sometimes several times to make sure they were dead.
In one of the buildings he found a group of youth wing members. "I saw a piano to the right. I moved to the right and opened fire, and shot four or five," he said. "I had planned to shoot as few people as possible," he told prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh. "I wanted the shooting to serve as a detonator. The aim was to scare everyone into the lake so they would drown."
He made it clear that his intent had been to kill everyone on the island. In order to create more fear, he shouted "You shall die today, Marxists!" Speaking ahead of Friday's hearing, Breivik had warned that his testimony would be gruesome. Some of the survivors and the bereaved opted not to follow the proceedings on closed-circuit television.
Others, like Vegard Wennesland, leader of the Labour Party youth wing section in Oslo, who survived the shootings, sat in the Oslo court "along with good friends." "It was gruesome, really hard to hear him describe the events without any emotion," Wennesland told broadcaster NRK.
Four court-appointed psychiatrists were also in court. They have been at odds over Breivik's mental health, with one team saying last week that the defendant should be considered sane and accountable, while another team of experts had earlier found him to be legally insane. If found guilty, Breivik could either be held in prison indefinitely, or he could be committed to psychiatric care.
During his testimony, Breivik also slammed the media and the ruling Labour Party. "The most influential powers in Norway responsible for supporting multiculturalism are the Labour Party and journalists," he said. The court had earlier in the week been told of his plans to target several leading newspapers, the national broadcaster NRK and a journalism conference before opting for Utoya.
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