Breivik lawyer hints at insanity defense

OSLO, Norway, July 26 (UPI) -- Anders Behring Breivik is delusional, the accused Oslo killer's lawyer said Tuesday, although he stopped short of saying he would try an insanity defense.

Geir Lippestad said Breivik "believes that he is in a war and in a war you can do things like that. He is in a bubble."

"He has a view of reality that is very difficult to explain," the lawyer added.

Lippestad said his client is cooperating with police but is refusing to explain his assertion that he had accomplices in at least two cells in Norway and several abroad, The New York Times reported.

Breivik pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges Monday while admitting he set off a bomb in central Olso and massacred young people on an island Friday.

Lippestad, a court-appointed lawyer and member of the Norwegian Labor Party that Breivik attacked, also confirmed Tuesday that the killer visited Britain as he planned his war against Islam, The Daily Telegraph reported.

A British far-right, anti-Muslim group admitted links to Breivik Monday.

English Defense League members said the accused killer met with their leaders at least in March 2010, when rightist Dutch politician Geert Wilders went to England to screen his film "Fitna," which argues the Koran motivates followers to engage in terrorism, anti-Semitism and hatred and violence against women, "infidels," homosexuals and all who violate Islamic teachings.

The Koran is the sacred book of Islam, which Muslims believe God dictated to the Prophet Mohammed through the Angel Gabriel.

A large part of Wilders' film details the alleged influence of Islam on the Netherlands.

Breivik also had at least 150 EDL Facebook "friends," a senior member of the EDL told The Daily Telegraph.

"I spoke to him a few times on Facebook and he is extremely intelligent and articulate and very affable," the senior EDL member told the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

"He is someone who can project himself very well, and I presume there would be those within the EDL who would be quite taken by that," the EDL member said. "It's like Hitler -- people said he was hypnotic. This guy had the same sort of effect."

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Breivik's claims of accomplices were being taken "extremely seriously."

Breivik also told police he wanted to cause maximum loss to Norway's Labor Party and its members -- and in attacking the party's summer youth camp, he wanted to deter future recruits from joining the party, the Journal reported.

Police Monday revised the death toll from the two attacks downward to 76 from 93. They said 68 people died in Friday's shootings on the lake island of Utoya, down from the earlier figure of 86. They said eight people, not seven, died in the bombing outside a government office building in downtown Oslo beforehand.

In explaining the discrepancy, they said some bodies on the island were accidentally counted twice in the confusion after the rampage. They also said the number of dead could rise again with several people still missing on the island.

Norway's version of the FBI, the Police Security Service, was also questioned after the Norwegian daily Verdens Gang reported late Monday the service had put Breivik on a watch list in March but didn't investigate further after Breivik made a suspicious purchase of chemical fertilizer from a Polish company.

Janne Kristiansen, the chief of Norway's police security service, told the government-owned Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. the purchase had set off an alert, but since the transaction was legal, security police had no reason to investigate further.

Under Norwegian law, Breivik could face a maximum 21-year prison sentence, but the sentence can be extended for a prisoner deemed a risk to the public, authorities said.

Prosecutor Christian Hatlo said Breivik told investigators during his interrogation he never expected to be released.

Police said Breivik's trial may not take place for up to one year.