Citation

Solheim T, Kvaal SI. J. Forensic Odontostomatol. 2013; 31(Suppl 1): 4-5.

Affiliation

Dental Faculty, University of Oslo, Norway.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Meditor)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

24362113

Abstract

On 22nd July 2011 a large bomb exploded in Oslo killing 8 people and causing considerable damage to government buildings. Later the same evening a gunman went to the island of "Utøya" where the Workers' Youth League, the youth movement of the Labour party, had their annual summer camp. He shot and killed 69 people on the island. The terror attack was made by only one man; Anders Behring Breivik, born in Oslo in 1979. He was thus 32 years at time of his terror action. His parents divorced the year after he was born and Anders lived with his mother. In 1983 the Child Welfare Service in Norway in a report concluded that he ought to be removed from his mother. He was an intelligent boy, but from 1995 he lost contact with his friends and isolated himself. He used the Internet and played war games on his computer. For several years he made preparations for the attack. He found out how to make a bomb using fertilizer. He hired a farm so that he could justify the purchase of fertilizer and to be able to work on the construction of the bomb undisturbed. He imported 5 tons of fertilizer and constructed the bomb and made test bombs to be sure it worked. Anders Behring Breivik had a political ideology behind his terror. He was a right wing extremist and anti muslims. He said after his arrest that he belonged to the Knights Templar and he would save Western Europe from Islam. His action was the beginning of a revolution in Western Europe. The reason for the terror was that he wanted to hit the Norwegian Labour Party which he thought was responsible for decay of the Norwegian society and the influx of Islam. The attack was carried out with military precision. After the attack the police did not find any evidence that more than one person was involved or that the Knights Templar existed. As Brevik admitted guilty to the terror attack and shooting, the main issue for the court was whether he could be regarded responsible for his actions and sentenced to imprisonment. Two psychiatric commissions arrived at opposing conclusions; one that he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and the other that he had antisocial and a narcissistic personality disorder, but not schizophrenia. The court verdict was that he was sane and he was sentenced to containment; a special form of a prison sentence that can be extended indefinitely-with a time frame of 21 years and a minimum time of 10 years, the maximum penalty in Norway . The attack on the government building and shooting at Utøya had a profound effect on both the police force and the whole of the Norwegian society. The question has been raised several times: "Did the police force handle the attacks as quickly and efficiently as one might expect? This will be discussed. The Parliament and Government and the Norwegian society at large have questioned if the attacks could have been prevented or the effects been reduced? The Prime Minister said all facts should be put on the table. A governmental Commission severely criticized both the police force and the Government's lack of preventative actions. The terror attack and what has been done afterwards is still discussed almost daily in the media.

Language: en