A Norwegian court has ruled that Anders Behring Breivik be held in solitary confinement after he boasted that he carried out Friday's massacre to "save Norway" and warned of "two more cells" prepared to carry out further attacks.
Judge Kim Heger said after a closed-door hearing in Oslo that Breivik, charged with terrorism following a bombing in Oslo and shooting rampage in Utoya that left 93 people dead, had admitted to the attacks but pleaded guilty.
He said that he had been "defending western Europe from 'Muslim takeover' and making the ruling Labour Party pay for 'failing' the country," the Telegraph reports.
Heger, who chose to deny Breivik an opportunity to air his anti-Muslim views to the public and held his arraignment behind closed doors, said he had been ordered held in custody for eight weeks because there was a risk he might "tamper with evidence" if released.
He will be banned from seeing visitors, receiving letters and reading newspapers or watching television for the entire remand period up until Sept. 26, the Telegraph reports.
Reporters had gathered outside the Oslo district court Monday for their first glimpse of Breivik since Friday's bombing and youth camp shooting spree that killed 93 people, the AP reports.
Heger said in a statement
"Based on information in the case the court finds that today's detention hearing should be held behind closed doors. It is clear that there is concrete information that a public hearing with the suspect present could quickly lead to an extraordinary and very difficult situation in terms of the investigation and security."
A spokesman for the Oslo district told USA Today that Heger was acting on the request of police.
Breivik had asked for an open hearing at which he wanted to dress in uniform and "air his belief that Europe must be saved from what he describes as Muslim colonization," the AP reports.
In a rambling 1,500 page manifesto posted on the internet on Friday, Breivik claims to have founded a movement inspired by the medieval Templars during a 2002 meeting in London with seven rightists from other European countries. (See VIDEO of alleged manifesto.)
He has also said that the killings themselves were "marketing" for the manifesto.
(GlobalPost reports: Is Anders Behring Breivik part of a movement?)
In France, meanwhile, police had reportedly set up a protective ring around the house of Breivik's father, Jens Breivik, who lives in the small French town of Cournanel in southwestern France and reportedly hasn't seen his son in 16 years.
"Police officials are on site to ensure public order due to the number of media and onlookers," said a spokeswoman for the local representative of France's Interior Ministry, the Wall Street Journal reports. "This is just a public order operation there is no raid, no investigation at Mr. Jens Breivik's home."
Soldiers of Norwegian extraction from the French Foreign Legion had visited Jens Breivik on Sunday evening, to see if they could provide assistance to him, said the public prosecutor for the district of Carcassone, Antoine Leroy.
The French Foreign Legion employs foreign nationals to serve in the French Army.
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