Self-described perpetrator of the mass killings in Norway told authorities there that he expects to spend the rest of his life in prison but two other cells in his terror network could still launch attacks, officials said Monday.
Anders Behring Breivik has admitted bombing Norway’s capital and opening fire on a political youth group retreat, but he entered a plea of not guilty, saying he acted to save Europe from Muslim immigration.
Prosecutor Christian Hatlo told reporters that Breivik was very calm and "seemed unaffected by what has happened." He said Breivik told investigators during his interrogation that he never expected to be released.
Breivik alluded to two other "cells" in a network he describes as a new Knights Templar, the medieval crusaders who protected Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. At one point, a manifesto he released shortly before the attack briefly refers to an intention to contact two other cells — a term he says refers to "small, autonomous groups" led by individual commanders.
Police announced, meanwhile, that they had dramatically overcounted the number of people slain in a shooting spree at a political youth group’s island retreat and were lowering the confirmed death toll from 86 to 68.
The overall toll in the attack now stands at 76 instead of 93. Police spokesman Oystein Maeland said that higher, erroneous figure emerged as police and rescuers were focusing on helping survivors and securing the area, but he did not immediately explain more about how the overcounting occurred.
judge has said the 32-year-old Norwegian admitted carrying out the bombing and shooting, saying they were necessary to prevent the "colonization" of the country by Muslims, while explaining that he targeted the Labour Party because of their "treason" for promoting multiculturalism.
"He is an exception, he is an extremist, who doesn't speak for the rest of the country."
Terje Korsnes, Honorary Consul of Norway in Massachusetts, says the majority of Norwegians do not share Breivik's views about Muslims or the Labour Party.
"In a political sense I don't think it is about the Labour Party, it might have been in his mind, but in the minds of the people of Norway, it definitely is not."
But he says immigration is relatively new in Norway, possibly causing some growing pains in a country that sometimes seems isolated from the rest of the world.
"It's only in the last two or three decades that immigration has grown in Norway."
"In Europe in particular they see the immigration of Muslims as something with a question mark, with concerns."
Imam Talal Eid with the Islamic Institute of Boston says despite education about religious differences around the world, there will always be people who harbor hatred for another group.
"I do understand that enough number of non-Muslims have in their mind the wrong impression about Islam, and Muslims at the same time.
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