Breivik trial: Shoe thrown at Norway mass killer

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OSLO. May 11. KAZINFORM A relative of one of those killed by Anders Behring Breivik has thrown a shoe at the defendant, interrupting his trial in the Norwegian capital Oslo.

"You killed my brother! Go to hell!" the relative screamed in the courtroom.

The shoe missed Breivik, hitting his defence lawyer.

Breivik, 33, admits killing 69 people at a youth summer camp on Utoeya island and eight in a bomb attack in Oslo on 22 July 2011. But he denies criminal responsibility.

Emotional outburst

The shoe-throwing incident on Friday brought spontaneous applause from members of the public in the courtroom.

The relative of the victim - who was not identified - was later led out of the room by the security staff. Some reports say he is from Iraq.

Shoe-throwing is seen a form of protest and public insult in many countries, but the practice came to the fore when a shoe was hurled by an Iraqi reporter at the then US President George W Bush in Baghdad in 2008, Kazinform cites BBC News.

The police superintendent in charge of the Oslo courtroom, Rune Byorkset, later told the BBC's Caroline Hawley that his colleagues "quickly took care of the man".

"It's not very surprising," he said, adding that "there are lots of emotions in the courtroom".

It is believed to be the first such public outburst in the courtroom since the trial started.

The shoe hit defence lawyer Vibeke Hein Baera, who was sitting closest to the public gallery during the presentation of autopsy reports.

In response, Breivik said: "If someone wants to throw something at me, do it at me while I'm entering or leaving, and not at my lawyer."

He also revealed that during the shootings on Utoeya someone had tried to stop him.

"Someone threw an object at me and it hit me in the face. I just thought I would mention it," he said, without specifying what the object was.

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