(22 Jun 2012) STORYLINE:
If Norwegian prosecutors get their way, no one will be held criminally responsible for the deaths of 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage that roiled the peaceful nation.
Even though self-styled anti-Muslim militant Anders Behring Breivik insists he is sane and that he carried out the July 22 attacks for political reasons, prosecutors said in closing arguments on Thursday that doubts about his mental state mean he should be sent to a psychiatric institution instead of prison.
The defence will get their chance to speak on Friday, the last day of the trial.
Ultimately, it's up to the Oslo district court to decide whether Breivik is criminally insane when it presents its ruling, expected in a months time.
Either way, the 33-year-old Norwegian will likely be locked up for most, if not all of his life.
But the outcome will also influence whether Norway's worst peacetime massacre goes down in history as right-wing extremism or as the work of a bloodthirsty madman.
Christine Bjelland - the mother of a survivor of Breivik's attacks and a member of a victims' support group - says she expects "the defender to ask for acquittal because of self defence."
"But everybody who has been following this trial can tell that that is a very strange idea," she added.
The judges already signalled that they will need time before passing sentence.
Two teams of psychiatrists reached opposite conclusions about Breivik's mental health.
The first team diagnosed him with "paranoid schizophrenia," a serious mental illness which would preclude a prison sentence.
The second team found him legally sane, saying he suffers from a dissocial and narcissistic personality disorder, but is not psychotic.
If the court opts for a prison term instead, prosecutors said their preference would be the maximum sentence of 21 years.
A sentence can be extended beyond that if a prisoner is considered a menace to society.


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