32-year-old man suspected of committing Friday's bombing and shooting in Norway appeared at an initial court hearing on Monday.
Anders Behring Breivik will be remanded in custody for eight weeks. For the first four weeks, he will be held in isolation with no contact to other people, mail services, or sources of media.
Monday's hearing was held behind closed doors. Afterward, Judge Kim Heger addressed reporters and read out the court's decision, including a few statements from the hearing made by Breivik.
Heger, speaking through an interpreter, said Breivik had "acknowledged the bomb explosion in the government quarter and the shooting at Utoeya." However, this was not an admission of guilt, as "the accused believed [he] needed to carry out these acts to save Norway and Western Europe" from, among other things, Marxism and Islam.
Part of the motive, according to Heger's account of Breivik's statements in the hearing, appeared to be a desire to send a strong message to Norway's Labor party regarding its immigrant policy. The youth camp where the shooting took place is affiliated with the Labor party.
Breivik has said he acted alone, but according to his statements on Monday, he claimed that there were "two more cells in our organization," which Heger said required more investigation.
It is believed that the bombing in Oslo was targeting the office of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. He was not harmed in the attacks, although seven others died in the bombing and more than 15 seriously injured.
Hours after that first attack, Breivik, dressed as a police officer entered a youth camp on Utoya Island. He allegedly told camp leaders that he was there on a routine check as a security precaution following the Oslo bombings earlier in the day. However, once given access to the camp he started mercilessly killing everyone in sight.
Acting Chief of Police, Sveinung Sponheim has said that Breivik was seen in Oslo prior to the explosions there.
Police reported: “The police have every reason to believe there is a connection between the explosions and what happened at Utoya.
The suspected killer was originally raised in Oslo and unconfirmed reports have said that he attended the same school as Norway's crown prince, Smestad Primary School.
He chose to be baptized into the Protestant Church at the age of 15, but over recent years has grown weary of the state of the modern Church. In one blog posted in 2009 he wrote: “Today's Protestant church is a joke. Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centres. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic.”
Neighbors have reported that they often saw him in “military style clothing”, and some have commented on his love for violent video games.
Breivik wanted to be an entrepreneur and had tried to start a number of new companies. However, he was not successful; and each company was quickly dissolved soon after being established.
In2009 he created his latest business – the farm business that allowed him to purchase huge amounts of fertilizer. He has posted on one blog that this business had the purpose to help support his political activities.
