Norway gunman wants Japanese psychiatrists, government to resign

The right-wing gunman responsible for last month’s massacre in Norway wants Japanese psychiatrists to establish if he is sane because he believes they understand the idea of honour, according to his lawyer. Anders Behring Breivik also called on the government to resign as a condition for cooperating with police.

"My client has expressed a wish for a Japanese expert," defence lawyer Geir Lippestad told financial newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv. “This wish has to do with the concept of honour. He believes that a Japanese person will understand him better than someone from Europe.”

The demand is part of a long list, which Lippestad described as “unrealistic” and which Behring Breivik says are conditions for his supplying details of two terror cells that he has mentioned during questioning.

Two Norwegian psychiatrists are to report on whether Behring Breivik he is sane enough to stand trial for the killing of 77 people in two attacks on 22 July.

He has not said that he will not cooperate with them, according to Lippestad.

In a separate interview the lawyer said that Behring Breivik claimed to have called the police during the massacre at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoeya.

Some survivors said that they heard him speaking on a telephone or walkie-talkie.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday attended the Muslim funeral of Somali-Norwegian 18-year-old Mona Abdinur, one of the 69 people killed on Utoeya.

As the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan started on Monday, 1,000 people, including Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutopglu, attended the funeral of another of the victims, 17-year-old Gizem Dogan, in the town of Trondheim.

Norway is to hold a national day of mourning on 21 August.