Breivik Says Being Sent To Mental Ward Would Be 'Worse Than Death'

Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik sits handcuffed and dressed as a police officer moments after his arrest, following a massacre on Utoya Island last year.

Anders Behring Breivik, due to go on trial later this month on charges of killing 77 people in Norway last year, says having to live the rest of his life in a psychiatric ward would be a fate "worse than death."

In an open letter partly quoted by the Norwegian daily "Verdens Gang" on April 4,

Breivik also claimed he found over 200 mistakes, including alleged outright lies, in a psychiatric report that declared him legally insane.

Breivik, 33, is to go on trial starting April 16 on charges of detonating a bomb in Oslo that killed eight people on July 22, and of subsequently killing 69 people at a youth summer camp on Utoya Island.

He has pleaded not guilty, saying the attacks were meant to punish the government for its immigration policies.

Based on reporting by dpa and AFP