Why the trial is a painful exercise for some but is a help to others

Watching a defiant Anders Behring Breivik stand trial for Norway’s attacks was searingly painful for some survivors and relatives of the dead.

“Today was really tough. I have prepared myself a lot, I have seen films and read everything about what happened, but it was much tougher than I thought it would be to be here today,” John Kyrre Lars Hestnes of the July 22 Support Group told AFP.

“When they started reading how each person died... I am sitting so I can see the accused very well, and there was absolutely no sign of regret or feelings or anything at all. That was toughest, I think,” he said.

Mr Breivik, 33, faces charges of “acts of terror” for killing 77 people on July 22 last year, when he set off a car bomb outside government offices in Oslo and went on a shooting spree on the island of Utoeya where hundreds of people were attending a Labour Party youth camp.

On entering the court Mr Breivik made what he claims is a far-right salute, and defiantly told the court he did not recognise its legitimacy.

After entering a plea of “not guilty”, he refused to stand each time the judges left the room.

The court heard a long roll call of those killed and injured, as well as a chilling emergency call to police from a young woman trapped on the island as bullets whistled around her.

There was also surveillance footage showing people walking towards Mr Breivik’s van as it exploded. The proceedings were followed by about a hundred survivors and relatives of the victims sitting in the specially-adapted courtroom and watched via video-link by others in another room in the building.

It was also retransmitted through video-link to 17 other courthouses and broadcast live on Norwegian public television NRK.

Some of the relatives of victims wept quietly. One family member, a woman wearing a yellow African headdress, wiped away tears and shook her head.

At especially sensitive moments – such as when the recording of the emergency call was played – the judge paused proceedings to allow those who wanted to leave the courtroom to do so. Many of the survivors and relatives of victims did not want to speak to the media and wore stickers reading “No interviews, please.”

“It’s difficult to prepare for something like this. I know a lot of people who didn’t get much sleep last night,” Erik Soenstelie, whose son survived the horror on Utoeya, told Norwegian daily VG online.