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BREIVIK

Prison builds one-man hospital for Breivik

Norwegian authorities are converting a high-security prison wing into a psychiatric unit to house Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik in case he is found insane, a report said on Thursday.

Prison builds one-man hospital for Breivik
Photo: Morten Holm/Scanpix

The daily newspaper Verdens Gang reported on its website that none of Norway's existing mental facilities are considered secure enough to house Breivik, whose sanity is the key focus of his ongoing trial.

If Breivik is found insane, he would be committed to the new facility at the prison in Ila, where he is already being housed during his trial.

"We are building a high-security hospital in Ila," deputy health minister Robin Koss told the newspaper, adding the facility near Oslo still needed state certification.

Breivik, a right-wing extremist, wants to prove he is sane because he thinks people may give his views more weight and not simply dismiss them as the rantings of a madman.

If he is found sane, he would likely face Norway's maximum 21-year prison sentence, which can be extended for as long as he is considered a threat to society.

The 33-year-old admitted to killing 77 people in a July 22nd bomb attack and shooting rampage.

Oslo judges have said they will likely hand down their verdict on either July 20th or August 24th.

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BREIVIK

Norway mosque shooter ‘has admitted the facts’: Police

A Norwegian man suspected of killing his step sister and opening fire in a mosque near Oslo last weekend, has admitted to the crimes though he has not officially entered a plea, police said on Friday.

Norway mosque shooter 'has admitted the facts': Police
Philip Manshaus appears in court on August 12. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB Scanpix / AFP
Philip Manshaus, 21, was remanded in custody Monday, suspected of murder and a “terrorist act” that police say he filmed himself committing.
   
Answering police questions on Friday, “the suspect admits the facts but has not taken a formal position as to the charges,” Oslo police official Pal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said in a statement.
   
Manshaus is suspected of murdering his 17-year-old step sister Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, before entering the Al-Noor mosque in an affluent Oslo suburb and opening fire before he was overpowered by a 65-year-old man.
   
Just three worshippers were in the mosque at the time, and there were no serious injuries.
   
Manshaus appeared in court this week with two black eyes and scrapes and bruises to his face, neck and hands.
   
Police have said he has “extreme right views” and “xenophobic positions” and that he had filmed the mosque attack with a camera mounted on a helmet. He had initially denied the accusations.
   
The incident came amid a rise in white supremacy attacks around the world, including the recent El Paso massacre in the United States.
   
Norway witnessed one of the worst-ever attacks by a rightwing extremist in July 2011, when Anders Behring Breivik, who said he feared a “Muslim invasion”, killed 77 people in a truck bomb blast near government offices in Oslo and a shooting spree at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utøya.