Oslo, April 16, (RHC), -- The Norwegian killer Anders Behring Breivik has pleaded not guilty during court proceedings after the trial of the July 22 case began on Monday morning at the Oslo District Court.

Despite admitting that the bombing in downtown Osloand the shooting on Utoeya island was done by him, Breivik justified the slaughter of 77 people, mostly teens, of last July, by saying it was part of his campaign to defend Europeagainst a wave of Muslim immigration.

In the indictment, Breivik was charged with 77 murders, 42 attempted murders and large-scale infrastructure destruction.

His victims’ names were then read out before the court heard how Brevik planned his massacres.

Prosecutors also played previously unseen footage of the Oslo car bombing and retraced his actions during a shooting spree on the nearby island of Utoeya.

Disguised as a police officer, he lured some of his mostly teenaged victims out of hiding before shooting them dead.

They had been attending a summer camp organised by the governing Labour Party, which Breivik accuses of being overly tolerant on immigration issues.

The defendant sat without visible emotion until the court was shown his 12-minute video that rails against Islam and warns of an impending Marxist Islamic takeover of Europe.

Breivik will make testimony in the following five working days, according to the schedule.

The trial, which began amid tightened security seldom seen in Oslo, was expected to run for 10 weeks before the judges make a verdict.

Norway has abolished capital sentence. The maximum sentence a court can hand out in Norway is 21 years in prison. But law experts say that if the prisoner is considered by a court as a high risk in society, the prison term can be extended in five-year blocks. /Euronews, XINHUA

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