Families of Norway massacre victims visit island

GlobalPost

The families of the victims of a mass shooting rampage on a Norwegian island are due to visit the scene Friday, as the man accused of the murders was due to reappear in court.

Anders Breivik has confessed to killing 69 mostly youths on July 22 at Utoya island, at a summer camp held by the youth wing of the governing Labour Party.

Just hours before his rampage on the island he bombed a government building in Oslo, killing eight others.

About 500 mourners are expected to go to Utoya, the Daily Telegraph reports.

"We will show them exactly where the people were found and give them details from the forensics investigation," Ketil Haukaas, deputy director of Norway's National Investigation Service, told Reuters, the U.K.'s Telegraph reports.

Police or prosecutors are expected to speak to reporters after his appearance in court in Oslo on Friday, which will not be open to the public or media, CNN reports.

This was to prevent him communicating with any possible accomplices though police have said they believe that he had acted alone, the Telegraph reports.

The Telegraph reports that prosecutors will seek to have his solitary confinement, due to expire on Monday, extended.

The Telegraph writes:

Police released the full transcript on Thursday of two phone calls Breivik made to police while he was shooting, mainly teenagers, on Utoya.

In the first one, the killer identifies himself as a "commander" from the "Norwegian anti-communist resistance movement" and expressed his wish to "surrender", before the conversation is interrupted.

In the second one, Breivik says that he wishes to surrender now that he has "completed his operation".

"It is acceptable to surrender to Delta," he said, referring to the armed response unit who arrested him.

Police tried to call Breivik back but he did not answer the phone. At the same time concerned relatives and people on Utoya were making frantic calls to police to say they were being shot at. Police told them to stay calm and play dead.

Breivik, 32, was taken back to Utoya last Saturday as part of a police investigation into the rampage.

Police said they spent nearly eight hours questioning Breivik and walking with him around the island during a reconstruction of the attack.

They said he "was not emotionally unmoved," but did not express remorse during his return to the scene.

Breivik has been held in solitary confinement since he was taken into custody on the island on July 22.

He has admitted carrying out the attacks, his lawyer and a judge have said, but has pleaded not guilty in court, CNN reports.

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