The trial of Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, took place between 16 April and 22 June 2012 in Oslo District Court.

[7] The main question during the trial became the extent of the defendant's criminal responsibility for these attacks[8] and thereby whether he would be sentenced to imprisonment or committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Two psychiatric reports with conflicting conclusions were submitted prior to the trial, leading to questions about the soundness and future role of forensic psychiatry in Norway.

However, subject to massive criticism from legal and psychiatric experts,[citation needed] the court decided to appoint two new psychiatrists, Terje Tørrissen and Agnar Aspaas, who were to conduct another analysis.

[15] Breivik was represented by his defence counsel Geir Lippestad, Vibeke Hein Bæra, Tord Jordet and Odd Ivar Grøn.

[16] Bæra, who had ten years of experience as public prosecutor, was hired as a partner following Lippestad's accepting the request from Breivik to defend him.

[18][19] Breivik's list of witnesses includeded far right activist Tore Tvedt, Labour Party politician Raymond Johansen, prominent Islamists Mullah Krekar and Arfan Qadeer Bhatti, and anti-Islamist blogger Fjordman.

[21] The purpose of calling Mullah Krekar was to help establish for the defence that political and ideological extremism is not a psychiatric disorder and should not be treated legally with insanity.

[22] On Monday 16 April 2012, when offered the opportunity to speak, Breivik said that he did not recognise the legitimacy of the Court because it derived its authority from parties supporting multi-culturalism.

[8] In his prepared speech Breivik gave a major focus to a statement by Norwegian social anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen.

When asked by prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh why he had broken into tears the opening day, Breivik responded that he had been weeping for Norway and his perception of its deconstruction: "I thought, 'My country and my ethnic group are dying.

[45] On the fifth day of the trial the Bosnian investigative weekly newspaper Slobodna Bosna reported that Milorad Pelemiš, a participant in the Srebrenica massacre of 1995, was Breivik's Serb contact.

[51] The defendant went on to claim that, KT as he calls it, does not exist as an organisation in its "conventional" understanding, but rather is "leaderless" and clustered around "independent cells".

[52] Allegedly there had been meetings with four individual nationalists, including "Richard", being the defendant's "mentor", and described as a "perfect knight", in a "founding" session.

He disputed that it had been because he had been made bankrupt, he said he had been working hard from 2002 to 2006 and needed a break, and that he could save money that way whilst also preparing his manifesto.

[59] The Defendant explained how he hoped for the killings of all members of the Norwegian government cabinet in his bombing, and how he also would have beheaded the former Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, if things had gone to plan.

[61] In advocating his own sanity, Breivik on this day asked the court to distinguish "clinical insanity" from what he alleged is his own "political extremism", and conceded that what he did caused huge suffering.

[68] The next witnesses was forensics specialist Ragde who talked about the findings on the crime scene in Regjeringskvartalet, and coroners Stray-Pedersen and Størseth, who presented the autopsy reports.

His witness statement was read to the court, where it was told how he had lost a leg in the blast, had a chest "full of shrapnel", and poor mental health.

He conceded that it had been hard to hear live evidence from witnesses for the prosecution but he also said that the Labour government should apologise for their immigration policies.

Breivik said that the report concluding his insanity was made of "evil fabrications" and insisted the ulterior motive behind such conclusions were "meant to portray him as irrational and unintelligent".

A victim named Henrik Rasmussen is said to have jumped into the line of fire, thus sacrificing his life for Johansen, whilst "Breivik had laughed with joy as he continued with the bloodbath...[during which narrative]...the accused shook his head at the description".

Among the witnesses were Tore Tvedt, founder of the group Vigrid, and Arne Tumyr of the organisation Stop Islamisation of Norway (SIAN).

[79] Court-appointed psychiatrists Husby and Sørheim acknowledge no competence on terrorism and explain that they have evaluated Breivik without putting him into a political context.

Court-appointed psychiatrists Aspaas and Tørrissen acknowledge the political context of Breivik's thoughts and actions, and thus see no sign of psychosis.

As they see the defendant, he is not clinically insane but a political terrorist with a psychological profile that makes it possible to understand how he was capable of carrying out the terror operation.

[citation needed] The central theme of the defence closing speech was that Breivik, who never denied the facts of the case, is sane and should therefore not be committed to psychiatric care.

Coordinating counsel for the aggrieved Mette Yvonne Larsen petitioned Oslo District Court to have the video removed from YouTube, which according to them is not fit for publication since it contains incitement to commit criminal acts.

Both the fact that he is allowed five full days to give his testimony, elaborating on his ideology, as well as court-room interactions where both the prosecutors and counsel for the aggrieved shook the defendant's hand at the beginning of the proceedings baffled some commentators but to others showed that the Norwegian court system is capable of respecting all people.

Organisers Munich Volkstheater had rented the hall for the performance, but it was banned owing to "a clause in the rental agreement that excludes right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic content".