Norway killings: Lay judge dismissed in Breivik case

Judge says anti-Muslim extremist deserves death penalty for killing 77 people.

A lay judge in the trial of confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was dismissed today for saying online that the anti-Muslim extremist deserves the death penalty for killing 77 people in a bomb-and-shooting massacre.

Lawyers on all sides requested that Thomas Indreboe be dismissed for his comments on a chat forum the day after the July 22 attacks.

Breivik is being tried by a panel of two professional judges and three lay judges. The system is designed to let ordinary citizens have a role in the Norwegian justice system.

Indreboe was replaced by backup lay judge Elisabeth Wisloeff.

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As at the start of the trial yesterday,Breivik entered the court smirking before flashing a clenched-fist salute. He will have five days to explain why he set off a bomb in Oslo’s government district,killing eight,and then gunned down 69 at a Labor Party youth camp outside the Norwegian capital.

Survivors of the July massacre worry that he will use his testimony as a platform to promote his extremist views. The key issue for the court to decide is whether Breivik is psychotic.

Breivik claimed yesterday he acted in self-defence to protect Norway from Muslims by attacking the left-leaning political party he blamed for the country’s liberal immigration policies.

Breivik rejected the authority of the court,calling it a vehicle of the multiculturalist political parties in power in Norway. He confessed to the acts but pleaded not guilty,saying he was acting in self-defence.