PROSECUTORS are pressing confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik for details about the anti-Muslim militant group he claims to belong to on the third day of his trial for the massacre of 77 people.
An irritated Breivik repeatedly refused to answer questions today about who the other members of the network are, or to give details of the meetings he claims to have had with them.
Prosecutors have said they believe Breivik's so-called Knights Templar group doesn't exist "in the way he describes it." Breivik insists it does, and said police just hadn't done a good enough job in uncovering it.
He told the court he had been in contact on internet in 2001 with a person abroad who was instrumental in the creation of the Knights Templar.
He also said he went to Liberia to meet a militant nationalist Serb, but refused to provide his name or details about the meeting.
"I do not want to provide information that could lead to the arrest of others," he said.
As prosecutor Inga Bejer Eng asked him why militant nationalists would want to have contact with him, Breivik asked her: "May I ask what the purpose is .. of your way of reasoning?
"You are trying to sow doubt about whether the network exists ... that is your purpose. I hope you will put less weight on ridiculing me and focus more on the issue.
"I am interested in casting light on the radicalisation process, but I don't want to make your delegitimisation strategy easier for you."
Eng persisted with her line of questioning.
"I don't want to say anything about that ... I don't want to say more about Liberia ... I don't want to say more about it," Breivik repeated, forcing Engh to finally read from the police interrogation transcript.
The judge warned Breivik that if he continued to refuse to answer, it could be used against him.
A day earlier Breivik read a 73-minute statement to the court - after being granted 30 minutes to speak - outlining his Islamophobic and anti-multicultural ideology, which he says explains why his attacks were "cruel but necessary."
Reading from a prepared text, Breivik said he had bombed government buildings in Oslo before shooting down 69 people - most of them teenagers - on the nearby Utoeya island to defend "ethnic Norwegians" from rising multiculturalism, insisting he "would have done it again."
The confessed killer has claimed "legitimate defence," and rejected any criminal guilt.
He told the court he had toned down his rhetoric and tried to play down his earlier antics, explaining he was intent on proving his sanity and showing his comprehensive ideology was not the rantings of a lunatic.
If found sane, Breivik risks a 21-year jail term, which could then be extended indefinitely if he is still considered a threat to society. If found insane he could be sentenced to closed psychiatric care, possibly for life.
Two psychiatric evaluations have drawn contradictory conclusions on his sanity, and ultimately it will be up to the judges to rule on them when they deliver their verdict sometime in mid-July.
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