Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has been declared sane by an Oslo court and jailed for 21 years.
The 33-year-old confessed to killing 77 people last year when he set off a bomb in the Norwegian capital and shot teenagers on the nearby island of Utoya.
After a 10-week trial the Oslo district court ruled the right-wing extremist was sane at the time of the twin attacks.
He has been handed the maximum jail sentence of 21 years, but this can be extended if he continues to be viewed as a danger to society.
“In a unanimous decision … the court sentences the defendant to 21 years of preventive detention,” said Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen, dismissing the prosecutor’s call for a verdict that would have labelled Breivik insane and have confined him indefinitely to psychiatric care.
Breivik himself had argued for a verdict of sanity as he wants the attack to be seen as a political statement against the “Islamification” of Europe rather than an act of lunacy.
He will be kept in isolation inside Ila prison on the outskirts of Oslo inside relatively spacious quarters that include a separate exercise room, a computer and a television.
Some survivors wanted a sane verdict, which makes clear that Breivik is responsible for his actions and also makes a protracted appeal unlikely.