While Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to having killed eight people in an Oslo bombing, and having gunned down another 69 at a youth camp on nearby Utoya Island on July 22, 2011, he has refrained from admitting guilt for the crimes that he has been charged with in this connection. In the mind of the 33-year-old Norwegian - whose sanity has posed a central issue throughout the trial - his actions were necessitated by what he perceived as the threat of multiculturalism in Norway, and as such, he has requested acquittal.

Breivik was formally charged last March with acts of terror and voluntary homicide.

The ensuring trial centered largely on his soundness of mind. The two psychiatric evaluations conducted on Breivik during the course of the proceedings produced conflicting results. The first held that he was psychotic, thus prompting prosecutors to suggest he carry out his sentence in a psychiatric ward. The second held that he was of sound mind.

If he is found to have been of sound mind in carrying out the 2011 massacres, he faces up to 21 years in prison. According to RIA Novosti, in case his mental state is determined to have been unsound, he will spend the rest of his life in a psychiatric ward built especially for him.

Please find the full text coverage of the sentencing hearing here.