Norway to build separate psychiatric ward for Breivik

Oslo, June 29 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Norway's Health Directorate has ordered the construction of a separate psychiatric ward inside Oslo's Ila prison for self-confessed mass killer Anders Breivik if he is found to be insane.

According to the Norwegian Aftenposten daily, the maximum-security ward will include a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and gym.

Prison authorities will have a nurse on duty round the clock, a guard working at the ward in the daytime and three night guards.

Breivik, 33, has confessed to murdering 69 people at a youth summer camp on Utoeya Island and eight in a bomb attack in Oslo in July 2011, but pleaded innocent to terror charges, saying he was defending Norway from multiculturalism and immigration.

The key issue due to be resolved during the trial against Breivik, which began April 16, is his mental state.

The gunman will spend the rest of his life in the psychiatric ward if recognised as mentally ill. If the court finds him sane, Breivik will receive a maximum of 21 years in prison.

The killer insists he is mentally healthy, saying that he would do "anything to prevent" committal to a psychiatric hospital.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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