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BREIVIK

Breivik lawyers exposed to death threats

Vibeke Hein Bæra, a lawyer for Anders Behring Breivik, has revealed that she received a number of death threats for representing the convicted mass killer.

Breivik lawyers exposed to death threats
Photo: Berit Roald/NTB Scanpix

Bæra’s experiences echo those of another of Breivik’s lawyers, Geir Lippestad, who has also been subjected to hundreds of threats, broadcaster NRK reports.

Bæra said she learned at one point from friends of her children that there was a price on her head.

“It created fear for my children and felt really horrible,” she told NRK.

The lawyer said she had been threatened face to face, via text messages and on the telephone.

“It’s most honest and fair when people can say what they think face to face. A few times I’ve also had cause to explain the job I do,” she said, adding that most people she encountered understood that even the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people last July had a right to a fair trial.

Bæra said she had taken a number of steps to deal with the threats in cooperation with the police but would not say what these measures entailed.

“This was taken very seriously by the police and I have felt secure all along in the way the police have handled our safety,” she said.

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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.